Senator Reid disappoints Hollywood
p2pnet news | politics:- Hollywood won’t be happy. US senate majority leader Harry Reid has done an about-face on his Higher Education Reauthorization Act.
But Hey! That’s what being a politician is all about.
His amendment would in effect have blackmailed American universities into working for, and on the half of, the entertainment cartels.
But without explanation, Reid “nixed” it, says CNET News.
Instead, the story goes on, he, “replaced it with a diluted version merely instructing higher ed institutions to advise their students not to commit copyright infringement and tell students what actions they’re taking to prevent ‘unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material’ through campus networks. The revised version was tacked onto the Higher Education Reauthorization Act on Tuesday, a Reid spokesman said in a telephone conversation, which the Senate then approved by a 95-0 vote.”
CNET continues:
What’s a little odd is that Reid offered a third version of the amendment earlier in the week. It said the Department of Education “shall not find any of the 25 institutions of higher education…to be ineligible for continued participation in a program authorized under this subchapter because of failure to comply with this section.”
Translation: Universities could ignore the requirements of creating “a technology-based deterrent to prevent the illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property” without suffering any financial consequences. The only downside would be the potential for bad publicity, but even that appeared to prove worrisome enough.
Adds CNET:
We should note that by “final,” in true Washington fashion, we don’t actually mean final. It may be final at the moment, but because the broader bill includes controversial components like $17 billion more on taxpayer-subsizied student loans and debt forgiveness, it may not necessarily become law. The House of Representatives has approved a different version of the law, and the Bush administration has said either version could amount to an unacceptable increase in spending.
Yesterday, Hollywood spokesman Dan Glickman heaped praise on Reid “commending” his “leadership” on the “critical” [to Hollywood] issue.
“Some college students are abusing powerful taxpayer funded computer networks to download and distribute movies and other copyrighted material which is why we are committed to working with universities to develop and implement plans to address this problem,” said Glickman.
But he failed to point out the studios have for years been hijacking taxpayer funded universities to act as Hollywood sales, marketing and copyright enforcement divisions.
In the 2004 cycle, TV/Movies/Music poured $146,500 into Reid’s coffers, says Opensecrets. The amount was $143,000 for 2006.
Also See:
blackmailed American universities – Hollywood backs Reid anti-student act, July 24, 2007
CNET News – Universities win Senate fight over anti-P2P proposal, July 24, 2007
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July 26th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Maybe Senator Reid felt that the “contribution check” (wink – wink ) from the MPAA and the RIAA was’nt big enough.
Face it all 535 Congress critters are on the MPAA and RIAA kickback and bribe list.
The entertainment cartels always lobby congress to not to change the DMCA so that people can legally copy movie dvds.
The level of corruption and graft in the halls of congress is not surprising really.
The same lobbyists always block any serious changes in the copyright and patent laws.
You would think that the MPAA and RIAA deals in what amounts to anti-trust business practices.
It’s the same thing the loudmouth dickhead Bill Gates does by threatening to sue linux operating system developers for urinating all over butthead bill’s pissing ground in the form of so called “patent violations” of his poopy microsucks operating systems.