Chris Dodd made $2.4 million as head of the MPAA in 2011. In other words, $2.4 million a year is what it takes for a former US Senator with a pretty decent reputation to flush it all down the toilet.
Dodd has little shoes to fill: Jack Valenti, who famously said “I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president.” when he served as LBJ’s chief toady, and “the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone” when he was MPAA president, is the model for the kind of slippery DC insider who should run an organization like the MPAA. The MPAA’s ability to get Dodd to do the job indicates either that he was desperate for cash or they’re paying more than the usual suspects.
Dodd began his tenure at the MPAA by the bold bipartisan action of having Lamar Smith introduce SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, which would have removed much of the safe harbor provisions of current law and made it possible to shut down sites for having one piece of copyright-infringing content. After a huge outcry on the Internet caused that bill to shit the bed, Dodd took to Fox News to threaten everyone who voted against it: “Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.” Dodd has officially declared SOPA dead, but that just means that the MPAA is working on getting the next Lamar Smith lined up to introduce another bill that will get them what they want.
Del
Entrenched interests, be they business or government, hate the internet. It’s rise wasn’t something they predicted or thought to control before it took off, and now we’re seeing a concerted effort to neuter the whole thing piecemeal around the globe. The MPAA’s just part of it, but I’ll gladly chip in to any effort or for any politician that makes it their mission to return copyright, patent, and other IP law back to their original non Disney-bastardized forms.
MattF
$2.4 million probably had to come from a ‘capital assets’ fund, pardon the pun. It would be amusing to know who actually put up the cash– but given Hollywood’s skill at creative accounting, we’ll never know.
PeakVT
I never understood the love for Dodd back in 2008, and neither did most Democratic primary voters, fortunately.
Zifnab25
It is both frightening and hopeful. Frightening because even fairly liberal Senators like Dodd have exposed themselves as cheaply corruptible. Hopeful, because a few radical industry executives can’t just institute the internet equivalent of a Burka-mandate to appease their neanderthal ideals of copywrite law.
It’s nice to know that we’re in an age in which popular opposition of an idea can still serve as a powerful pushback.
Tokyokie
But if we were to reform copyright laws, then Margaret Mitchell’s nephews’ heirs (which now include the archdiocese of Atlanta, which has set up a corporation to manage the assets lest some altar boy raped by a priest decides to go after therm) would have to work for a living rather than live on income derived from a novel published more than 75 years ago.
Maude
Dodd has always been concerned about Dodd. He is a slime.
There was a Saint Paddy’s Day parade in Rockaway, NY. THey had damage from Sandy.
Good ole Schumer got on the bullhorn and someone yelled back, send the money, pal.
WereBear
The Internet is the moveable type of our time. It is incredible to live in such interesting times!
And, as the Chinese curse goes, there are downsides to it, too.
Del
@Tokyokie: I know. It’s like they forgot copyright was a contract with the people to encourage creative works while also allowing the creator to make a living creating. I mean, if we eliminate the hereditary bequeathment what incentive do artists have to make anything?
Some of us might be content building our chops with fanfiction and going on to live a comfortable middle-class life writing fiction as a side-job… the travesty.
Mark S.
I thought everyone had dismissed Woodward as a doddering old fool, but Kathleen Parker dons her cheerleader outfit and tries to gin up some support for ol’ Bob. Something I learned: denying Woodward unlimited access to the WH is a violation of the 1st Amendment.
Baud
Dodd certainly cashed out, but IIRC he left office under a bit of a cloud, not with a pretty decent reputation.
What was Dodd’s stance on copyright/Internet issues as a Senator? Did he really sell out, or was he always an advocate for the content owners? This issue is one of those that split party lines.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tokyokie:
This. Just this.
This crap has to stop. Rentier madness must come to an end.
Idiots like these are basically setting the stage for a radical reimagining of what “intellectual property” is. One that they will not like the outcome of.
Baud
Completely OT, but I hope this gets posted here.
scav
Speaking of running (fairly) true to stereotype, apparently the facts guy Romney went with knowing things with his heart instead of his gut, but no matter. I’m sure it’s tremendously packed with nerve endings. Moment of silence for Satire please. No flowers.
Baud
@scav:
I will never tire of remembering that night.
jefft452
@Tokyokie:
@Villago Delenda Est:
“would have to work for a living rather than live on income derived from a novel published more than 75 years ago.
This. Just this.”
seconded
SiubhanDuinne
@Mark S.:
I am so very sorry I read that.
Wag
When Goldwater was the alternative I’m sure this was a widely held sentiment.
Chris
@Baud:
Nor will I. And the sentence “Ann Romney says she cried” is icing on the cake. It pays us back for having had to endure that wannabe royal couple’s many lectures on how lucky we peasants are that they lowered themselves to running for office.
Mike in NC
Speaking of US senators with no reputations: both John “I was a POW” McCain and Lady Lindsey Graham will appear together on Republican hack Bob Schieffer’s show “Face the Assholes” this morning. Be sure not to tune in.
dr. bloor
@Baud:
Wow. A rare spotting of wingnuts in the wild realizing actions have consequences. Wake Marlin Perkins and get the cameras rolling!
MomSense
OT but McGrumpy is on my teevee warning about the consequences of the sequester on our military readiness. Of course he jumps right to Iran and their nuclear program. I have trouble with McCain as a credible source on this when he says “the centerfuges in Tehran are spinning” Centerfuges???
Shortstop
@Chris: it’s a sweet memory we can all pull out and look over on politically cold nights.
Chris
@MomSense:
I wasn’t born until the end of the Cold War. And sometimes I wonder what it was like living in an era when people like this freaked out about enemies that could ACTUALLY hurt us.
Iran. Heh. Quaking in my boots, no, really!
SatanicPanic
For $2.4 million I’d flush my reputation, such as it is, down the toilet. But so far no one has made me that offer.
maya
Caligula was right. Horses make great senators. Horses’ asses otoh, not so much.
What about Bob [Woodword]? Don’t forget it was his book on the Bush WH which brought to light that we went to war in Irag because of a president’s disposition to accept B-ball terminology as the deciding factor in launching that war.
However, it wasn’t clear if Woody thought that that was actually a bad thing. Personally, I would prefer that, in the future, our leaders used Roller Derby terminology instead. A hip whip is so much more fun to visualize than a slam dunk.
Walker
@Baud:
He was primarily pro-financial. Banks owned him completely. He tried to revise his image a-la McCain after the 2009 collapse, but it did not work.
WereBear
It’s a religious disease with them; dammit, just pretend everything is perfect and let terrible consequences drop on those who fail to be perfect, and then EVERYTHING WILL BE PERFECT… so shut up.
At least, that’s how the Baptists do it.
Maude
@MomSense:
Hey, he left out Iran on the middle east map. Give him a break.
MomSense
@Chris:
There is more of a threat now from unsecured nuclear materials than there is from Iran–but you never hear the freak out from Republicans about that. This whole thing is a ruse to pursue Iran for other reasons.
Baud
@Walker:
I knew about his relationship to the financial industry, just not the content industry.
I guess I still reserve the term “sell out” for someone betrays his principles in some way, rather than simply makes money doing what he believes in. But I might be wrong.
maya
@SatanicPanic: And there you have the precise mind-set of our national leadership: Why enter public service if you can’t make a private fortune out of it?
SatanicPanic
@Baud: They’ll just make those babies illegal.
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
And therefore invisible.
Mnemosyne
@Tokyokie:
It’s not people like Margaret Mitchell’s heirs who are driving this — it’s corporations like Disney that don’t want to lose the copyright on their early films like “Steamboat Willie.” That’s why it’s coming through the MPAA.
Basically, Disney doesn’t want people being able to rummage through their vault and release cheapo discs of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And even if they could somehow be convinced, that would then lead to a direct conflict with the Bourne Company, which owns the copyright to all of the songs in Snow White and many of the early Disney songs (incuding “When You Wish Upon A Star”).
And if you think book and movie rights are complicated, try dealing with frickin’ song rights sometime. “Happy Birthday to You” was written sometime in the early 1900s and the damn thing is still under copyright.
accidentalfission
@MomSense: Duh!
Nucular centerfuges. What’s so hard about that?
JoyfulA
@scav: Romney knew in his heart he’d win Florida solidly because he didn’t believe anyone would wait 8 hours in line to vote.
Joel (Macho Man Randy Savage)
Dodd did some nice promotion for the Peace Corps.
That’s all I have to say for him.
Bruce S
“what it takes for a former US Senator with a pretty decent reputation to flush it all down the toilet”
Dodd was always pretty much of a shill for the financial sector – in particular the insurance industry of his home state.
piratedan
@accidentalfission: now if only they’re following the same model design as Fukushima and can get them built close to a fault line……
Kyle
Repuke ideology requires a continual supply of fearful bogeymen to keep the rubes from noticing how they’re being screwed.
Gin & Tonic
@Chris: Read about Berlin in 1961. Human civilization as we know it could very easily have ended that year. Perhaps more so than during the Cuban missile crisis.
MomSense
@accidentalfission:
Moar Nucular Centerfuges!!!
Cain
@Baud:
It’s probably births of the wrong kind.. eg minorities. Otherwise known as demographic change. Of course, abortion might be okay if it continues the white man’s dominion don’t it?
grandpa john
@MattFI expect that most of it came from monies stolen from the actual artist by using creative accounting
Tokyokie
@Mnemosyne: I’m well aware of that, I just use the heirs of Margaret Mitchell to demonstrate the ridiculousness of the current state of copyright. Copyright law is supposed to benefit the creator of the work, not the 4-year-old son of the creator’s brother for the rest of his life.
But Disney is especially nasty in the copyright arena. Consider the source material for most of its classic animated features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty? Brothers Grimm. Little Mermaid? Hans Christian Andersen. Aladdin? One Thousand and One Nights. Song of the South? Uncle Remus. Pinocchio? Carlo Collodi. And so on and so on. All of it based on source material that’s public domain. Animated features for which Disney had to buy rights — Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie), Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne) and Bambi (Felix Salten) or commission original screenplays — The Lion King and Dumbo — are the exceptions. In fact, Disney waited until shortly after Kipling’s work lapsed into public domain to begin work on the animated version of The Jungle Book.
But rest assured that Disney scrupulously copyrights the animated works it bases on public domain sources and then leverages the hell out of the merchandising tied to them. Just as it serially seeks modifications of U.S. copyright law every time the animated short Steamboat Willie (it’s from 1928, fer crying out loud) appears headed toward public domain, dragging the corporation’s trademark rodent with it. Under the copyright law in effect when Steamboat Willie was made, the copyright should have expired in 1968, yet it endures. Thank you, Sonny Bono.
Ruckus
@Tokyokie:
But, but, but…
If corps are people then Disney is still alive and the copyrights should remain. Of course we all know that if corps were alive they could be tried, jailed and lose those rights when they fuck up, you know like killing people or stealing their homes and savings. Like flesh and blood people usually do.
maurinsky
The bad thing is that even when a Senator is a sleaze, he or she can still do good things. He championed the Sustainable Communities Initiative in the Senate his last year in office and that money is doing a lot of good stuff in the Pioneer Valley/Connecticut River Valley.
Another Halocene Human
Mistermix,
Chris Dodd did not have a sterling reputation to tarnish. He should be in prison right now for taking bribes in excess of $10,000 USD from Angelo Mozillo.
Another Halocene Human
@Tokyokie: Whoa, whoa, back that up: Song of the South–Uncle Remus?
Don’t you mean Joel Chandler Harris, who was drawing off a folk tradition (as the Grimm brothers did–they were ethnographers) which goes back to coastal West Africa? I would liken them to Ananzi tales although Wikipedia thinks there is a direct relationship with the Yoruba culture’s stories about The Hare.
Mnemosyne
@Another Halocene Human:
According to Wikipedia (yeah, I know), the “tar baby” story in particular may be the result of cultural cross-pollination between slaves brought here from Africa and the Creek or Cherokee tribes who often intermarried with them in the early days of the British colonies.
Tokyokie
@Another Halocene Human: I shouldn’t have used that example. Harris took (and profited very nicely from) public-domain African-American oral traditions and collected and published them as Uncle Remus tales. Disney did pay Harris for the rights for Song of the South, but in that case, it was Harris rather than Disney who exploited public-domain material. Of course, that film is locked up so deeply in the Disney vault that it’s a tossup whether it’ll see the light of day over here (think it came out on laserdisc in Japan in the early 1990s) before Steamboat Willie goes public domain.
Tokyokie
Oops. I guess Disney didn’t pay the Harris estate for the rights for the stories for Song of the South. Harris, who died in 1908, is credited as the literary source, but the copyright for the last of his Uncle Remus books would have lapsed in the 1930s under the law in effect back then, and the movie came out in 1946. So Disney ripped off the estate of the guy who appropriated the slaves’ oral traditions. Good, wholesome entertainment, doncha know.
Davis X. Machina
@PeakVT: He was the flavor of the month on DKos for filbustering the immunity-for-wiretapping-telcos amendment to the reworked FISA.
Phineas Phang
Not defending Dodd but you got your history wrong on this one, mistermix. As someone who has covered Hollywood’s efforts on Capitol Hill for years I assure you SOPA was in the works loooong before Dodd was hired. He really didn’t have much to do with it except bitching about it after it failed.