Remember SOPA and how much of a stir it caused? Well it seems that we may face another round in the ring with a new law championed by the MPAA. At least that is what the indicators are at this point. We mentioned when SOPA was shelved that this was a distinct possibility and one that we should watch out for. This was right after MPAA CEO Chris Dodd made his now Now Dodd is back and in usual fashion he cannot keep his mouth shut about anything. He is already talking about the time when he can personally lobby for new laws in Washington that benefit the cartel that he now leads. Although the MPAA has lobbied for many changes and sought to keep a hold on their rapidly dying business model Dodd himself has been prohibited from being directly involved in this as part of ethical restrictions on him.
You see before Dodd took over the MPAA he was a US Senator from Connecticut. This is part of the revolving door that corporate America seems to have with our top legislative bodies. There have been many lobbyists that have ended up as Congressmen and Women as well as Senators, Members of the Department of Justice and more (maybe there should be an ethics regulation about that).
Either way we all know that Dodd was not happy at all with the outcome of the SOPA and PIPA bills that he paid so much for and it is very likely that he is looking forward to being personally involved so that he can directly contact the Senators and members of Congress and … talk to them about what the laws should say.
What is most interesting is that Dodd is also trying to make it sound like the MPAA is changing its mind about things. He specifically mentioned that any new laws would need to be more subtle and “consumer oriented”. He talked about stopping their continued efforts to relate piracy to theft. However, something tells us that while they might remove that verbiage you can bet they will still make it quite clear that it really is theft.
The MPAA wants (and needs) to gain control over the internet; they see it is as one of the most dangerous threats to their continued control over the entertainment industry. Without control over this method of distribution they will continue to lose money (nowhere near as much as they claim) and will not be able to support the outrageous budgets and salaries they gotten used to. To get there it is pretty clear that Dodd is not above a few threats; after all he did it on national television, why would he not do it in person when he will finally get the chance?
2013 is going to be a bumpy year and with a potentially new administration in the white house it could end up being even worse. Of course any new law like SOPA or PIPA will have to deal with quite a potent force on the Internet including the EFF, Fight for the Future, and of course the Anonymous movement.
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