"Candidly, those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd told Fox News. "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."
As a former Senator, the guy knows how the system works.
What a smarmhole; and to think, I once thought he'd be a good running mate for Obama. Glad the prez is smarter than me.
Posted by: Roch101 | Jan 23, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Avatar might have gross billions if it hadn't been for those pesky pirates...
Posted by: Stephen | Jan 23, 2012 at 12:33 PM
Am I to understand that in the geek value system, plagiarism is the ultimate felony, but piracy is just peachy, because the former is stealing intellectual property (gasp) while the latter is merely stealing money, generally from those who in the geek's arbitrary opinion have too much of it anyway, so shouldn't mind spreading it around?
Posted by: cheripickr | Jan 23, 2012 at 12:47 PM
No, CP, you are not to understand that.
The problem with SOPA and PIPA is that they would not solve the very real problem of IP theft, but they would give too much power to government and its favored industries, at significant cost to other companies and to individuals.
Also, I think you may be confusing "geek" with "journalist" on the plagiarism thing (although there is room for overlap between those two groups, in both pejorative and non-hostile vernaculars, and both plagiarism and IP theft are theft).
Also, to the extent that "geek" means "person skilled in information technology," and the representatives of such in this debate include Google and Facebook, I don't see a lot of money-shunning or wealth-disdaining going on.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Jan 23, 2012 at 01:40 PM
When it comes to buying influence, a billion dollars just ain't what it used to be, I guess.
Posted by: Kim | Jan 23, 2012 at 03:04 PM
See Clay Shirky's TED talk for analysis about what's wrong with SOPA/PIPA in historical context back to days of analog TV - there might be some readership here that can recall those times.
Buying influence is legal as Fec's latest 'Hedges post' points out - enjoy the consequences ;-)
Posted by: RBM | Jan 23, 2012 at 05:28 PM