‘MPAA sentences man to death’
p2pnet.net News View:- A good title would be “MPAA sentences man to death” (if they follow the RIAA’s lead for spin doctoring the truth).”
That’s the way Bill Evans thinks a new movie studio propaganda story on the revelation, yesterday, that Russell Sprague had died in an LA jail cell, could end up.
Evans founded Boycott-RIAA.com, but resigned from it after a policy disagreement with its current owners.
‘Screeners’ is the music industry term for copies of movies used for promo purposes, reviews, so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members can decide what to vote for in the Oscars, and so on.
Jack Valenti spent quite a few of his last days as the MPAA’s boss trying to have screeners banned on the strength that they were, he said, little more than p2p network fodder. His successor, self-confessed amateur comedian Dan Glickman, is currently leading the MPAA in an all-out fight against BitTorrent sites which, he swears, are responsible for copyrighted movies being shared online.
He carefully avoids mention of the Hollywood insider activity which achieves the same result.
Academy member Carmine Caridi, for example, had been passing screeners to Sprague whose demise reminded Evans of a 2001 incident in which a Plainview, Texas, man landed 17-and-a-half years in a federal jail after he admitted to possession of child pornography, possession of obscene material and soliciting sex from underage girl, opening a barn door for RIAA fact adjustment specialist Frank Creighton to gallop through.
Wonderful phrase, ‘related to’
“A Plainview man who served time for molesting a 3-year-old girl is going back to prison on child pornography and related convictions,” said a Plainview Daily Herald story, going on:
“Lubbock federal Judge Sam Cummings sentenced 51-year-old Randy Lee Williamson, no street address available, to 17 years after Williamson pleaded guilty last week to four of 141 felony counts against him: conspiracy, possession of child pornography, possession of obscene material and soliciting sex from underage girl.
“Other charges – including criminal copyright infringement, dealing in counterfeit labels and a large number of child pornography counts – were dropped in return for the guilty plea.”
When Creighton was through with the story, it had become:
“RIAA Anti-Piracy Efforts Lead to 17 Years for Music Counterfeiter – Again proving that the law takes counterfeiting seriously, a Plainview, Texas man was sentenced to 17 ½ years in federal prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to conspiracy and smuggling charges related to criminal copyright and trademark infringement and other crimes.”
“The conviction of Randy Williamson is a reminder that many music pirates are often engaged in other significant criminal activities,” he said, going on with the standard, “We would like to thank …” addressed to the Texas department of public safety, the US customs service and the US attorney’s office, “for working with us to bring Mr. Williamson to justice and creating the necessary deterrent that benefits not just our member companies and artists, but the public in general.”
What would we do without the RIAA?
Axed from the RIAA
Back to Spraugue’s death, “I can’t wait to hear how the MPAA spins this,” Evans told me. “Damned shame you weren’t around back then.
“Karen Allen (the RIAA’s then Internet Evangelist) and I had some knock down drag outs over the story to the extent that when we finally met face to face, Brian Zisk of of the Future of Music Coalition rated it as one of the top moments of the year.
“Every one thought we’d kill each other. The next day she got axed from the RIAA in their layoffs of 31 staff.
“It all started with a piracy investigation, which lead federal authorities to Williamson. They entered his house and he assumed the bust was for the child porn, and lead authorities to the evidence on his PC. His lawyer managed to plea bargain, and all the copyright charges were dropped. The conspiracy charge related to his attempt to get a friend to erase his hard drive, denying the court the evidence. I turned Dave Marsh onto this story, and he wrote about it for Starpolish.
“Now, with this a ‘copyright criminal’ dies in custody, one can only be wondering what the MPAA’s position will be. Especially after the Randy Lee Williamson case and the RIAA. They could have easily turned it to their advantage, by using the the headline ‘Copyright infringement investigation leads to arrest of pedophile’. But instead, they tried to spin it to look like the guy was sent to jail for 17 years for copyright charges.
“The sentence was explained to me by the Federal prosecuting attorney who handled the case. The 17 years was the remainder of his paroled sentence (about 7 1/2 years) and 9 more for the new charges, 137 of which were dropped for the plea bargain, (including anything copyright related). Williamson plead to conspiracy, possession of child pornography, possession of obscene material and soliciting sex from underage girl. That’s it. According to the Prosecuting attorney, those charges were more serious, and the intent was to get him off of the street/net. That gave him the longer term.”
There is now, “no reason for anyone to give credibility to the RIAA, a front for liars, cheats and thieves,” Marsh wrote in 2001 in his article, which applies just as well today and is still worth a read.
“We can only hope that journalists, judges and politicians remember this the next time the RIAA slithers onstage to whine.”
Tune in on March 29.
Jon Newton
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
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See:-
self-confessed – New MPAA boss a comedian, p2pnet, July 2, 2004
BitTorrent sites – MPAA sues more movie ‘pirates’, p2pnet, February 25, 2005
passing screeners to Sprague – Movie ‘pirate’ dead in jail cell, p2pnet, March 1, 2005
worth a read – Damn Lies & Statistics, Starpolish, July 23, 2001
March 29 – CCA newest anti-p2p recruit, p2pnet, February 28, 2005
