As for Valenti talking about Hollings' CBDTPA bill, Valenti is correct to say that it has not been reintroduced yet. But in a statement last month (http://www.mpaa.org/jack/2003/2003_01_14.htm), Valenti said: "We are not prepared to abandon the option of seeking technical protection measures via the Congress..." He's parsing his words mighty carefully, don't you think? -Declan --- From: "Grant Yang" <grant.yangat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: RE: Jack Valenti will speak today (Tuesday) at Georgetown law school Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 15:21:32 -0500 Actually, Howard, the guy who picked you up for the talk at Duke asked that question (about copy protection in chips), and Valenti vehemently denied that the MPAA was currently supporting any legislation. So then Howard mentioned the CPBTA (whichever legislation you mentioned) and Valenti said that that was last Congress term and that there is no actual current legislation out there. Then he kind of evaded the question on this matter. Oh and you don't have to post this, just letting you know that asking him is useless. He is very stubborn. You should see his talk. His entire speech is basically about morals, and if you ask him anything about copyright extension his reply is the Supreme Court with a 7-2 decision has spoken. End of discussion on that. However, if it had gone the other way I don't think he'd be citing the Supreme Court. The IP Society got a private discussion with him after his talk, and let's just say it was very frustrating. -gc --- Subject: Re: FC: Jack Valenti will speak today (Tuesday) at Georgetown law school From: [deleted --DBM] To: declanat_private In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030225112640.075f4e50at_private> [please withhold my name/email if you post this - as the [deleted --DBM] for Duke, I really shouldn't take a public position] Hi Declan, I attended the Duke Valenti Lecture yesterday (http://www.law.duke.edu/features/news_valenti.html). For those who are interested, a video of the hour long talk (10 minutes of introduction, 20 minutes of Valenti speaking and 30 minutes of Q&A) will be posted online from a link off of the announcement page above. The audience was fairly skeptical of Valenti's claims and did try to press him on the issues of the morality of his association's actions. However, Valenti managed to avoid directly answering the majority of these questions. Two of the more interesting moments were his statement that you have no right to copy a DVD - ever; and the admission that the purpose of dvd region encoding is to protect their distribution model - if you want to watch legally purchased Japanese Anime in America you should buy a ($400) Japanese DVD player. For anyone planning to go to one of the lectures in order to debate Valenti, a couple of suggestions: Valenti is a demagogue and will not argue points logically. When debating he will change topics rapidly in order to avoid being pinned down. Try to stick with simple issues (yes, it is a complicated topic, but Valenti won't interact at that level). Valenti argues by metaphor and analogy: copying isn't just illegal, it's piracy (ahoy mateys); you can't make backup copies of crystal goblets and if you break them, waterford won't replace them - why should we let you make backups of DVDs or why should we replace them. Anyway, you should plan alternate metaphors and analogies in advance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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