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Re: Thinking Ahead...



the MPAA and in particular it's long time head Jack Valenti have been
extremely active lately in the area of copyright protection. most vividly
they moved to supress DeCSS code that allows DVDs to be played on Linux
boxen including having the computers and cell phones of a young Norweigan
student who wrote the DeCSS code.

http://www.salon.com/tech/view/2000/02/14/valenti/index.html for a Valenti
interview mentioning MP3

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/01/30/1246206.shtml links to a removed
LATimes article, but you can see that MPAA is agressive from the snips.

http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/02/04/1133241.shtml is an interview with
DeCSS author Jon Johansen 

I posted a note earlier about Larry Lessig's opinion piece in the standard
criticizing Valenti as a self-appointed prosecutor for cyberspace:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,10885,00.html

Also Valenti is the man behind the Copyright Assembly (I posted on this as
well):

MAJOR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS TEAM UP TO LOBBY CONGRESS ON PIRACY
An alliance of some 30 groups and associations have announced
plans to fight piracy on the Internet by creating the Copyright
Assembly, a lobbying group that will "preserve, protect, and
defend the sanctity and concept of copyright from all intruders."
Members of the alliance include the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA), the American Association of Advertising
Executives, NASCAR, the National College Athletic Association,
the Recording Industry of America, and the Newspaper Association
of America.  The group announced its intentions in a letter to
Congress, without recommending legislation on the matter of
online copyright protection.  Addressing the issue of Internet TV
broadcasts last week, MPAA President Jack Valenti cautioned
against the hasty implementation of legislation.
(New York Times Online, 22 Feb 2000)

==========================================================================
                             Paul Jones
   "We must protect our precious bodily fluids!" General Jack D Ripper
http://MetaLab.unc.edu/pjones/ at the Site Formerly Known As SunSITE.unc.edu
  pjones@MetaLab.unc.edu   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071 
===========================================================================