Dan Glickman, former Secretary for the US Dept. of Agriculture under Clinton, has been named as Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. C-SPAN - in my opinion, the best thing on TV, has video of his meeting with the National Press Club, discussing, "The Motion Picture Industry in the 21st Century - A New Golden Age?" NOTE: If you're having trouble viewing the video, go here.
I'm unable to find a transcript of the meeting, so you'll have to go off my hand transcription. This discussion provides some. This NPC discussion provides tremendous insight into how the MPAA views copyrights, their violation, and their strategy to combat it.
Some noteworthy segments:
9:02: "These same forces threaten to unlease a wave that will undermine the very foundation of moviemaking."
This is the scope of the threat as viewed by the MPAA. Quite large, and rightly so. Cites the difficulty the music industry is undergoing and says he wants to make sure the movie industry doesn't go through the same thing.
10:00: He cites the notion that because they create IP rather than something we can touch it feel, it confuses people into thinking it's OK to download it.
10:43: "Downloading a movie of the internet is just as serious as walking out of Blockbuster w/ a movie under your shirt."
A lot of his speech sounds like what we've gone over in class: Non-rivalrousness (though he doesn't use that word), the viral nature of the internet, high speed access as a cause, etc.
He also announces that the MPAA is going forth with lawsuits targeted at people who share movies online. The approach for the MPAA appears to be two-pronged: educating the public, especially the youth, that piracy = theft and litigation against pirates.
He states that the average movie costs $103 million to produce and market and 4 out of 10 movies don't recoup that cost. See Glitter.
In a related note: In an interview w/ USA Today, the following was asked:
Q: Can piracy be licked?
A: We can stay ahead of the game, and we can make life very difficult for people who want to break the law. Will we totally obliterate piracy? No. But we have to make it as difficult as possible. [emph. added]
You mean Glitter didn't do well at the box office?!
Next you'll be telling me that Gigli didn't do well either...
Posted by: John Lotfi | November 15, 2004 at 01:09 PM