MPAA Boss: If The Chinese Censor The Internet, Why Can't The US?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-boss-if-chinese-censor-internet-without-problem-why-cant-us.shtml

by grecy • 15 years ago

177 60 15 years ago

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nextparadigms4• 15 years ago

How nice. Instead of USA spreading American values to the Chinese people, China is spreading its "values" to USA. Also MPAA's "analogies" to theft are becoming increasingly more ridiculous.

zitterbewegung• 15 years ago

Just because the Chinese limit people to one child per couple why can't the US?

I don't think justification to do something that someone else does no matter that it is an oppressive regime.

EDIT: fixed person to child

nextparadigms4• 15 years ago

Not to mention piracy is rampant in China, so I don't know what he's talking about when he says "it works" there. It makes me think that the main backers of SOPA want something more than just to fight copyright infringement, and this is why they are asking for "China-level" control, even though piracy is just as bad or worse there.

lazugod• 15 years ago

One person per child?

politician2• 15 years ago

Teen pregnancy is rampant over there.

sliverstorm• 15 years ago

China secretly imprisons and executes journalists, why can't the US?

gkoberger• 15 years ago

Not to harp on a horrible metaphor, however I would say Google is more like a metro or subway than a getaway car driver (or car manufacturer).

Yes, you took it to the bank robbery -- however it also took lots of people to other places, and didn't know nor care where you were going or why. Nobody would accuse a bus or train of being an accessory.

jarcoal• 15 years ago

Definitely more accurate, but I wish these sort of metaphors wouldn't be used at all. Oversimplifies the issue.

gojomo2• 15 years ago

Just wait until one of Google's self-driving cars is used for a heist.

Zirro• 15 years ago

You just made me realize how self-driving cars can be (ab)used by police or higher organisations to track citizens, and stop a crime.

Knowing what they are currently trying to do with the Internet, them wanting to have some control over the self-driving cars wouldn't surprise me.

To some people it may seem clear how much of a benefit this would be. "Wow, the police are actually able to lock down a getaway car and arrest people who have just committed a bank robbery?".

But, there's a reason I wrote "(ab)used" up there, you probably understand the implications already.

arctangent• 15 years ago

I've not studied the issue extensively, but I believe a similar argument was the basis for the "safe harbour" provisions of the DMCA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_L...

RandallBrown• 15 years ago

they probably used Google to find the website of the bank they're going to rob so they could get a location and hours. So really the Google and the bank both assisted in robbing that bank.

kermitthehermit• 15 years ago

Let me check if I got this, just because they're ripping money off the film industry and they must come up with results to justify the money they get into their pockets, the country is supposed to give up on all freedoms and throw the constitution to the trash?

I generally don't like violence or encourage it, but people who back things like SOPA and PIPA really deserve a good beating.

We all saw how good the "great wall of China" proved to be. Protesters vanish without a trace, people who dare to say anything online sometimes go to jail or just vanish.

wanorris• 15 years ago

> Protesters vanish without a trace

Didn't that just pass the Senate?

william42• 15 years ago

Nope, that's an urban myth. The law explicitly contains language saying that it doesn't override any previous laws on detention.

Don't trust things you see reblogged on tumblr, especially if they don't cite sources.

BillSaysThis• 15 years ago

The MPAA goons have long passed the line of "we give a frak what anyone says about us" and will happily stay there as long as politicians take their money and vote as desired. And look who said this: Chris Dodd, a former senator.

cookiecaper• 15 years ago

Wow, I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of the fact that the "MPAA boss" was the Chris Dodd. Pretty amazing that he could go around saying things like this.

2mur• 15 years ago

I was driving and listening to NPR the other day. Some story was on about the MPAA and the new SOPA bill. I hadn't yet heard that Dodd was the new MPAA chairman (chief lobbyist).

I was almost physically sick when that came across the air. I'm a long-time Democrat but I'll be damned if that didn't make me want to never vote for anyone ever again. Our two political parties are really two sides of the same coin and they are all working for corporations.

jrockway• 15 years ago

Our two political parties are really two sides of the same coin and they are all working for corporations.

They're not, right? Google is a corporation and SOPA goes against Google's wishes. The political parties work for whomever they think will get them re-elected, and apparently the media companies are who they consider most valuable.

thyrsus• 15 years ago

“In America, you have a choice! The capitalist party, or the other capitalist party!” – Dmitri Orlov, Russian emigre

rsanchez1• 15 years ago

"If the Chinese censor the Internet, why can't the US?"

Because we have constitutionally guaranteed liberties, which are ingrained into our culture. Ever heard of the first amendment, moron?

white_devil2• 15 years ago

Your government is a government just like the one in China. There are cultural differences, of course, but both governments are run by human beings.

It's not that the US government couldn't behave like China's - so far they've just chosen not to go quite that far. They seem to be on their way though.

billpatrianakos4• 15 years ago

This whole discussion of the US in general has got me thinking but your comment specifically really stood out to me. I know that these measures suck and all but is the US government really becoming as evil as people say?

If you at things historically you'll find people worrying that the US government is/was becoming tyrannical since the year our constitution was adopted. While I agree that the current Internet censorship debate should be taken seriously and I don't want any of these proposed laws to pass, if you take the long view you'll find that the history of the US is all about a series of battles for freedom. Some we win, some we lose but overall we've been heading in the right direction for a long time. It sounds silly but this can be likened to the posts that pop up on HN from time to time about how it's getting diluted and becoming lame. Some days trolls and idiots rule the day, others the smart folks take control and in general the community and their contributions have remained high quality since its inception.

So let's fight the good fight but maybe not go down the whole "this country is becoming the next [insert unpopular regime here]" road. Yesterday always seems like it was better than today, hindsight is 20/20, the grass is always greener, and all that.

devs10102• 15 years ago

One doesn't have to search long to find plenty of examples of how the US government has made a mockery of the 1st Ammendment as well as many other Ammendments in the Constitution. Its nice to think that we have fundamental rights but in practice I really don't find that to be all that true unfortunately.

dextorious4• 15 years ago

Those didn't stop the Patriot Act. Or any of the tons of violations the government did.

HistoryInAction• 15 years ago

MPAA, led by former Senator Chris Dodd

AdamFernandez• 15 years ago

I think it's great that he is making comments like this. It is such bad P.R. that it only makes it easier to do away with SOPA. I hope he continues to make these statements.

billpatrianakos4• 15 years ago

Carefully what you wish for. Get the right rep with the right amount of pull in congress and they'll get a ton of support from the rest of our reps no matter how asinine their statements are.

einhverfr2• 15 years ago

The GP is right though. Get the right rep with the right amount of pull in Congress, and it will happen regardless of what is said. However I think the statements being asinine make it easier to fight back and more costly for reps to go along with it.

secretwhistle• 15 years ago

Looks like Chris Dodd finally took Bono's advice:

"We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4 percent of gross domestic product."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html?hp=...

iamandrus• 15 years ago

I really hate how companies like the MPAA and RIAA exist. They care about nothing but precious profit. Yeah, let's forget constitutional rights and free speech, and censor the Internet to protect our product that can survive without us. China's doing it! We have the technology!

politician2• 15 years ago

They exist so that their member companies can say unpopular things that aren't directly attributed to them. It's like money laundering, but for speech.

mathrawka• 15 years ago

Exactly, I think the media should recognize that the MPAA/RIAA consists of companies, and actually attribute things said to the companies that participate in the MPAA/RIAA. That way the people can see what these companies really think about the world.

medius• 15 years ago

I generally don't like the use of a metaphor as an argument since it often misses the point. Watching a movie without paying is not the same as stealing. I cannot give it to someone else what I have watched, I can't sell it, etc. But even if we accept that comparison, adding a second level of comparison by saying that a search engine is an accessory to stealing/robbery is just plain ridiculous.

For some reason, I don't really worry too much about all of these regulations. They will create speedbumps along the way, but the world will move on and come up with more innovative ways to get what they want. If they don't change with times, they will be uprooted eventually.

What Steve Jobs did was bring great technology and experience to masses faster than most other people. All of this would have been created/invented anyway, but it just would have taken a bit longer. All of these people only slow down the progress (which is still pretty bad), but they won't be able to stop it.

dextorious4• 15 years ago

"""I generally don't like the use of a metaphor as an argument since it often misses the point. Watching a movie without paying is not the same as stealing. I cannot give it to someone else what I have watched, I can't sell it, etc."""

That same holds for stealing a pie and eating it. You cannot give it to someone else or sell it.

You just decided on a specific, narrow, interpretation of "stealing".

Fargren• 15 years ago

You are right in that example, but saying that downloading a file illegaly is stealing is still wrong. It is an broad and overreaching definition of "stealing".

Stealing is the substraction of an object. If I steal something from you, you don't have it anymore. You lose it. If I pirate Avatar, you can still sell it to someone else. If steal your car, its gone unless you get it back from me.

reinhardt• 15 years ago

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.

billpatrianakos4• 15 years ago

The problem is that we have ten thousand year old representatives. They probably still do accounting using an abacus (or demand that their account use one).

All joking aside, we're talking about people who can barely use a computer debating laws governing the use of the very technology they haven't slightest clue about. As long as our representatives continue thinking that the Internet is a series of tubes we'll continue to hear this sort of thing from them.

glimcat• 15 years ago

This is so far into WTF that I can't help being deeply suspicious that it's a deliberate ploy of some sort. I just can't figure out what it would be expected to accomplish.

hastur• 15 years ago

If the MPAA boss is a retard, why don't we isolate him in a mental institution?

dextorious4• 15 years ago

You really think your comment is above retard level?

devs10102• 15 years ago

The US seems to be taking the expressway already to becoming more like China in terms of how the government relates to and deals with its citizens. This is just the tip of the iceberg considering a lot of whats gone on in the last decade in this country.

nextparadigms4• 15 years ago

This kind of flies in the face of what Hillary Clinton was saying today.

buff-a• 15 years ago

It's this sort of ridiculousness that makes it so difficult to take Dodd and the MPAA seriously in these discussions.

Only if you are educated and rational. We, here, are not the audience for his remarks.

Natsu3• 15 years ago

"When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn't do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites."

And then they decided it was such a bad idea that they were going to leave the country. Carrying this to the logical extension, if implemented, Google would pack up and leave us for Canada.

Canada is already on the MPAA's naughty list, so....

vilya• 15 years ago

I thought the Google leaving China thing was about government sponsored attempts to hack them, not about blocking?

Natsu3• 15 years ago

There was that, too, but who knows which straw broke the camel's back?

Havoc• 15 years ago

If lemmings can jump off cliffs, why can't the MPAA Boss?

2muchcoffeeman• 15 years ago

Does anyone have a good explanation of the mentality of these media organisations? There are good examples of how relaxing DRM and making it easy to purchase content makes you shed loads of money. E.g iTunes Music Store.

Why aren't they just concentrating on how to make more money? Are these actions really more productive than acquiring more customers?

MPAA Boss: If The Chinese Censor The Internet, Why Can't The US?

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