Sopa Smopa, Fix it Yourselves

Chris Dodd the former senator from Connecticut and present head of the
Motion Picture Association of America is having a hissy fit because the lawmakers he bought won't stay bought. Gee, is there no honor among thieves anymore? I recalled a particularly harsh assessment of Mr. Dodd's character during the dust up surrounding the AIG bonuses. That caustic evaluation of the good senator' character appeared in his hometown paper, the New Haven Register and began;

"We’re not going to mince words. Chris Dodd is a lying weasel.

It is hard enough to swallow that the senator had no idea that he got preferential treatment on his home mortgages that saved him thousands of dollars. Or that, simply out of friendship, a wealthy New York man, who was later convicted in a huge stock swindle, picked up much of the cost of a condo Dodd bought in Washington; or that the stock swindler’s business partner out of a love of Ireland did the same for Dodd when the senator bought a waterfront house in Ireland.

Now, Dodd flat-out has lied about his role in legislation that is allowing employees of American International Group to receive $400 million in bonuses despite receiving $173 billion in taxpayer money to keep the failed financial giant alive."

Suffice it to say, Dodd seems to have acquired a reputation for not always being Boy Scout honest. Now the New Haven Weasel is threatening the legislators and the White House whom he thought he had bought with this unvarnished threat right on national television.

"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. 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."

Hear that Barack? Don't ask him to write a check when your job is on the line.

Now a fair minded president would tell Dodd to fight his own fights and leave the taxpayers out of it. How exactly does the taxpayer benefit from the protection of copyrighted material. If a building contractor should egress on your easement don't bother to call Eric Holder. He will tell you that its civil law and that's what courts are for. Oh, but when the property is intellectual property not only the federal government but Google, FaceBook, Reddit, Wikipedia, and every web master should put aside their personal concerns and be about the very serious business of protecting the soft core porn pushed by the clients of the New Haven Weasel. I am sorry that Avatar sold 21 million pirated copies but how did the originals get into the hands of the pirates? Has anyone noticed that Broadway plays don't have this problem? Why? Because they keep their intellectual property indoors. They protect their content. The internet may facilitate the piracy problem but the movie and music industries have only themselves to blame for the loss of anticipated income. Not content to live on the income from theaters and concert halls these industries push their products through live streaming and DVD's then it becomes the public's obligation to protect their rights. The public has a pretty accurate opinion of Mr. Dodd and his clients and has neither the time or inclination to surrender their individual freedom to make greed pay.