MPAA chairman Chris Dodd threatens to cut funding to US politicians over SOPA failure
“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,”
This is an incredible statement from a former Senator who is chairman of the MPAA and is one year away from being eligible to directly lobby the government.
CrunchFund partner MG Siegler has harsher words to say about Chris Dodd.
More on Chris Dodd’s statement.
Hollywood drops support for Obama for siding with Silicon Valley
Hollywood drops its support for Obama? Maybe they need to update their business models like when the movies went to home projectors and then to televisions, then to video cassette tapes, optical discs, and now digital stream/downloads.
It’s technology. Adapt and make money off of it, or attack and be hated, reviled, and abandoned by the consumers.
These Hollywood big guns keep making boatloads of cash off every new technology that they decry, it’s almost like putting on a show for nothing.
Piracy is about access. Look at how the video game industry transformed itself with online multiplayer games. Video game networks like Blizzard’s Battle.net, Microsoft’s XBox Live, and Sony’s PSN are doing well fending off pirates by limiting access to only legitimate members.
Look at how the music industry is being converted into digital. Not fast enough to make money? It’s only been just over a decade since consumers began to embrace digital downloads and less than a decade since iTunes Music Store debuted. iTunes makes it really easy for people to acquire music legally. Spotify and Rdio are doing the same thing for streaming services.
Content business is going digital and Hollywood should have been working with Silicon Valley on how to make money off of that instead of attacking those who take advantage of their lack of foresight. On that note, how would you transform entertainment?
Apparently school is only for virgins
This sickening news came from Jambi, a city in Sumatra, Indonesia. The logic of Bambang Bayu Suseno, a local legislator, is that:
The idea is simple. Parents are obviously afraid of their daughters being deflowered before the time comes, so before they continue their studies, they can undergo the virginity test and automatically protect their dignity,” said Jambi legislative councilor Bambang Bayu Suseno.
He is proposing that female students undergo virginity tests before they can be admitted into public schools and existing students may be forced out if they were found to be no longer virgins. According to him, non-virgin girls are not worthy of education simply because they gave in to peer pressure. Note that he did not say anything about non-virgin boys.
While the province’s secretary spokesman rejected the idea, it is still astounding that someone at the legislative level even has this idea cross his mind. Education is a basic human right and to refuse anyone, virgin or not, is a violation and the law does not discriminate based on a person’s moral judgment.
The country has been drawn into the morality debate. The Minister for Communication and Information wants to block pornography to protect children and the eastern values of society and prosecute those who seek porn. Advocates of freedom of expression are being labeled as pro porn despite debating the principles of censorship rather than the content. An Aceh district chief wants to enact a bylaw making it compulsory for women to dress in a certain way to avoid inciting impure thoughts by men which may lead to rape.
This is Indonesia now. A country anchored in morality issues.
Update: The proposal has been rejected.
Source: thejakartapost.com
Why does our government seem so frakkin stupid?
A well thought out piece on why the Indonesian government is hell bent on pushing through the decisions that it has set out to do. Two examples are:
- Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring’s crusade against porn on the internet to the point where he’s threatening to block BlackBerry services unless RIM filters out access to pornography from its channels.
- Religon Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali’s war against the Ahmadis, an officially unrecognized Islamic sect declared to be illegal due to difference in teachings from the widely accepted variety of Islam in Indonesia.
Both ministers and everything they stand for are highly unpopular among the opinionated, critical and well informed group. Unfortunately, this group isn’t strong enough to force a change yet.
These decisions are being made because human and individual rights as well as supposed common sense are largely irrelevant or inconsequential to the rest of the people who just wish that these things were never brought up in the first place.
The State Department on Friday urged Americans to respect its warning against traveling to North Korea, saying in a cheeky Twitter message that there are not too many former U.S. presidents left available for rescue missions.
Source: nickdouglas
Australia has its first female Prime Minister
Julia Gillard becomes new Australian Prime Minister after Kevin Rudd resigned. The leadership challenge that was expected to go down this morning did not eventuate as Kevin Rudd elected to step down. Wayne Swann becomes Deputy PM.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is facing a leadership challenge tonight as his former backers in the Australian Labor Party have deserted him for his deputy, Julia Gillard who moments ago took a position to challenge Rudd. Those keeping an eye in Australian politics are speculating strongly that by tomorrow Australia will have a new Prime Minister ahead of the election later this year.
Mickey Mouse, 47th President of the United States of America
Posted via email from A Geek Dad’s Log | Comment »