Hollywood's Own Paper Says Congress Shouldn't Protect Hollywood

from the gotta-hurt dept

Didn't see this one coming. Hollywood's hometown paper, the LA Times, has an editorial today entitled: We Aren't All Pirates, talking about how Congress shouldn't pass laws that clearly go beyond the basic intent of copyright law: to encourage the creation of new art. It points out that many of the new laws being pushed by the entertainment industry break the delicate balance set up by copyright, and are clearly just about protecting one particular business model. The editorial notes that passing these laws "would impinge on devices that have legitimate uses and steer the development of technology, cutting off some innovation." None of this should be surprising to anyone around here... but to hear it out of the LA Times is a bit surprising. How far has the entertainment industry pushed its luck when even its local paper is pushing back?
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  • identicon
    GDog, 10 Jul 2006 @ 5:24pm

    How Far...?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    jeremy, 10 Jul 2006 @ 5:34pm

    "How far has the entertainment industry pushed its luck when even its local paper is pushing back?"

    Umm, I'm sorry, but the movie Industry doesn't own the LA Times, if the LA Times stated that they support eating kittens would techdirt post it? There is a wide variety of opinions, and I think what will cause change in copyright laws is not some newspaper with a small group of people babbling, but with the consumers, which, in the movie industries' eyes is potential profits.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 10 Jul 2006 @ 7:13pm

      Re:

      Umm, I'm sorry, but the movie Industry doesn't own the LA Times

      No, they don't... but they do advertise a lot in the paper. Also, it's pretty typical for local newspapers to support the views of the big local industries. So, it absolutely is significant that the LA Times would say this.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Alan MadLeese, 10 Jul 2006 @ 7:53pm

        The times and the kittens

        Well, one wonders about the Times and its kitten policy and whether it is in the pocket of this or that industry. I have minor relations with the L.A> Times. I worked there briefly in the Sixties and got drunk and left, not necessarily because the copydesk job was boring but I got into the bubbly. So that's in the nature of full disclosrue, but in the past two months, sober and in Maine, retired and so forth, I found out, in conjunction with an L.A. blogger named Trent Lapinski, a lot of bad stuff about MySpace, which will soon become apparent to any Californian who can read, courtesy of ValleyWag and some other blogsites, that MySpace was problematic beyo0nd the extremes that critics have noted, and all that can be clared up, for the doubting Thomases, by googling m name or Konspiracy Korners or Scobleizer or Catbird Forum or Buzzmachine, that I seem to be in possession of a lot of uncirculated information about MySpace and the spam and sham and scam of it all, and I have called the L.A> Times on at least wo occasions, tipping them off toi the biggest news biz story of this cycle and the next two or three, and the folks at the L.A. Times, including their investigative team, heard my bleats over the voice machnine, and via the e-mail and deigned not t reply, but then they were not alone, and of course they are probably not in anyone pocket but their own little world which not admit of people calling at night to tell them what the fuck is going under their noses. Check it outl,, googlers may use the names Ted I. Wiederhorn, Andrew Alan Wiederhorn, Clarence B. (Uncle Bud) Coleman, and, to be sure, just lcheck out what your find when you ghoogle Christopher DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, andplease exuse the fucking ty0posd because I habve been writing shit like this for fouth months and still havent' made a dent in the armor of the fragile ego of themsm. al macleese hallowell, maine, and you do know how to google, no?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Missing, 10 Jul 2006 @ 9:42pm

          Re: The times and the kittens

          You sure you are off the bubbly, Alan?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Grumpy Old Man, 11 Jul 2006 @ 5:03am

          Re: The times and the kittens

          As one old Geezer to another, brother what you on, and where can i get some? I haven't rambled on like that sence the 70's

          GOM

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          dan, 11 Jul 2006 @ 12:44pm

          Re: The times and the kittens

          Congrats, Alan!! You just set the world record for the longest run-on sentence in written history-- 218 words!

          Not a word of it was salient, cogent or coherent, but 218 words in one sentence is 218 words in one sentence. i couldn't do that.

          i think i now know why you really lost your job at the Times as a copy editor.

          And Hemmingway rolls in his grave.....

          -- dan

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John, 10 Jul 2006 @ 5:45pm

    They Eat Kittens?

    I would read the article if TechDirt posted La times eats kittens. I am always looking for new kitten recipes.
    BTW...Those small groups of people babbling are consumers too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Corey, 10 Jul 2006 @ 6:00pm

    Eating Kittens

    Bastardizing a Sheila Jackson Lee-ism: I thought those where biscuits.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Matt, 10 Jul 2006 @ 9:57pm

      Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

      You MUST be in Houston to make a reference to Ms. Lee.

      My favorite Lee-ism is STILL when she was in the control room at JSC when they had one of those Mars missions tooling around the surface. She asked the mission commander if it would be possible to drive the rover over to where Neil Armstrong landed.

      Ahhhh... Can you smell the democracy?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Trvth Jvstice, 10 Jul 2006 @ 6:02pm

    IMO

    This isn't a very "tech-like" article. I would expect it to be on a Hollywood news site, or an entertainment site. I vote it gets removed from this site ASAP.
    All in favor, say aye
    Thx.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ehrichweiss, 10 Jul 2006 @ 6:19pm

    LA Times and kittens

    jeremy,

    What the hell IS your point?!?!? The movie industry doesn't own the LA Times, so why is that important? Nobody said they owned them, only that the entertainment industry's own *local* paper didn't support their propaganda.(emphasis mine, duh)

    And at least someone is making some noise about this. That's how consumers find out about this and realize that there are other points of view than what they might have previously considered.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe, 10 Jul 2006 @ 8:00pm

    What the fuck was that?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    jsnbase, 11 Jul 2006 @ 12:09am

    So, it absolutely is significant that the LA Times

    I completely disagree. If we were talking about Variety or some other trade publication I'd be with you, but no one out here considers the Times an 'industry' rag. Nobody in Hollywood is looking towards the Times as any kind of public opinion bellwether.I think you're over-estimating the importance of proximity.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Who are you kidding, 11 Jul 2006 @ 10:36am

    I question the L.A. Times

    Californians can read? WOW!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jimbo, 11 Jul 2006 @ 2:07pm

    Editorial

    This was an editorial . . . views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinion/bias/sellout of the publication. I don't see much relevance. The LA Times is circulated from Santa Barbara down to San Diego - that's a lot of territory, bub.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alan MadLeese, 13 Jul 2006 @ 6:57pm

    Cabin Boys on Parade

    Danny, boy, yeah, I do run on but at least I have passion while all you seem to got is snark and a very worrisome lack of imagination. And, oh, if you read other than my sort of drivel on line,have you noticed that every motherhumping thing I said is standing up, and yeah, danny, I was a little overtaken that nice, but it wasn't the saucce, it was the pipes that had been calling. almac from hallowell, where snarks are politely ignored but I am only a relative newcomer. Hallowell Maine. U.S.A. Nice town. Good eats, fine lobster. Short enuf sentence, Danny?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Starky, 14 Jul 2006 @ 10:26pm

    When they make new devices that block the analog hole, I just won't buy them. Are they going to force everyone to update their VCRs, DVRs, and Cameras? What if someone refuses? Or, better yet, just "removes" the people pushing for this.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alan MadLeese, 23 Jul 2006 @ 8:54pm

    Oh Danny boy, the pipes are ....

    Aside to Danny boy: Once I wrote a column for the FLint Journal all in one sentence, about 700 words. Before that, a friend of mine, a noted columnist for the Miami News, wrote a column all i one sentence, and before that a guy named Ben Stein wrote a column all in one word. Allof these columns were more than twice as long as the lousy 218 words that you counted, Danno, and, all things considered, I would guess if you couldn't handle a measly 218words a whole column would defeat you. Since it usually only takes me about five minutes to write some shit lsuch as that, and since I was high as a Georgia pine, and didn't realize that purists would be listening, why I just went on and on and on....and incidentally, me and Lapinski are going to put a big hurt on the bad folks that spawned MySpace on the wrong side of the blanket, well, who gives a rat's posterior about such niceties as being salient, cogent or worse, terse. al macleese from Hallowell Maine,where bears and moose mate athwart the white lines on the roads high above the Kennebec, and sometimes a moose willconfuse a bear with one of its own kind!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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