p2pnet news view | MPAA News:- Tomorrow, a lawyer in Vancouver will be asking me questions springing from accusations by Sharman Networks and Kazaa boss Nikki Hemming that an article, and comment posts which appeared under it, defamed her.  That was more than two years ago so I’m planning to spend today refreshing my memory on events leading up to, and surrounding, the lawsuit.

But as I do every morning, I first checked my email acounts and among the missives is a Chronicle of Higher Education link to Wired Campus. And today, (Illegal) Access Hollywood: Universities and the Movie Industry Debate Piracy, said one of the the headlines.

How could I resist? And one of the things I learned was: America’s greatest exports to the world are: A) the (corporate) movie industry; and, B) the US system of higher education .

The first is, of course, total rubbish. Hollywood would be best described as a form of plague. And with all due respect, I doubt if even proponents of the American higher educational system would describe it as one of America’s greatest exports.

But when you learn the words came from Stewart McLaurin, executive vice-president for education (No, really!) of Hollywood spin organisation the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), everything suddenly shifts into focus.

Together with its opposite number, the Big 4 record labels’ RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the MPAA is quite literally terrorising students from one end of the country to the other, accusing them of “devastating” the obscenely rich major new movie studios via P2P file sharing.

The corporate entertainment industries have spun a simple commercial concept, copyright infringement, into a major crime on the level of rape and murder. And they’ve also turned the word ‘piracy,’ which hitherto had been used almost exclusively to describe robbery on the high seas, into a euphemism for counterfeiting and file sharing, neither of which have anything to do with each other but which are always lumped together by the entertainment cartels.

Now, using the University of California, California State University and University of Southern California Systems as the springboard, Hollywood is behind what’s called the 2008 internet entertainment workshop.

I couldn’t find a program for 2008, but last year, “we are pleased to explore with the Motion Picture Association of America evolving digital content delivery models and related technologies to better serve our community,” University of California system associate vice president and chief information officer Kristine Hafner was quoted as saying, going on:

“We continue to educate our students about responsible behavior on the Web, but they need help navigating the complex world of digital copyright.”

And who better to help than Hollywood, upholder of truth and honesty?

“We firmly believe that easier and better digital delivery models will help, he [sic] added.”

Then, “Senior Vice President and Chief Strategic Officer of the MPAA Dean Garfield who also spoke at the event said that the industry embraces delivery methods that open up new choices for consumers —

— as long as they support viable business models and prevent unauthorized exploitation.”

Ah SO!

‘Designed to improve relationships’

“Cheering and applause overwhelmed speakers here at the 2008 Internet Entertainment Workshop, a “summit” convened today by the movie industry and large university systems to discuss the divisive issues of college students downloading music and video, possibly illegally and probably aided by university network services,” writes Josh Fischman in the Wired Campus post, going on »»»

There were full-throated shouts of joy, and the sounds of people jumping from their seats.

Well, that was actually from the boisterous motivational seminar going on next door at the hotel (”Are you ready to change your life?”). These hotel walls at the Universal City Hilton are thin.

In the Internet workshop, the mood was more somber, despite efforts by the Motion Picture Association of America, which convened the meeting, to find common ground between the two sides.

“This workshop is designed to improve relationships,” said Stewart McLaurin, the MPAA’s executive vice-president for education. “The American system of higher education and the motion picture industry are perhaps our country’s greatest exports to the world. We are the faces of America.”

Bob Pisano, the MPAA’s chief operating officer, added: “You in the universities are on the leading edge. You have the high-speed bandwidth networks and the perfect demographic.”

He meant students.

“We have to figure out a way to marry the opportunities that technology gives us with the protection of intellectual property. We have to develop a digital conscience,” Mr. Pisano added.

Difficulties began to emerge as the workshop got under way, however.

An official from the California State University system, one of the workshop’s sponsors, said during a coffee break that institutions do not want to get into policing and spying.

“If we do it to students, what’s to stop us doing it to faculty?” he asked. “And won’t that have a chilling effect on academic freedom?”

And during a panel discussion, students from the University of Southern California pointed out that they often pay a lot of money to Disney, Universal, and other movie studios to see movies in the theater. Once they’ve done that, the students said, it seems OK to them to download a film if they want to see it again.

Not according to Hollywood.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am and is filed under MPAA News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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