MPAA Boss Doesn't Even Make It To The End Of His Contract

from the now-what? dept

Fri, Jan 22nd 2010 2:44pm — Mike Masnick

Back in October, we reported on rumors that the movie studios were so upset with MPAA boss Dan Glickman that many thought he wouldn't make it to the end of his contract. While he had said all the usual stuff about "evil piracy," apparently the studios were upset that he couldn't stop technological progress with the wave of a magic wand, and wanted someone who would attack file sharing even more aggressively. At that time, the MPAA revamped to focus more on content protection -- which is the exact wrong thing to be focused on. They should be focusing on providing increased scarce value that gets people to buy -- but instead, they wanted to focus on building up artificial scarcity that technology (and much of the market) will ignore.

Of course, right after the rumors, Glickman came out and announced that he would be stepping down at the end of his contract in September of 2010. So it seemed like maybe the studios would let him stick around to the end, since it was clear he wasn't coming back. Apparently even that plan has been thrown out the window, as Glickman has now announced that he's leaving as of April 1 in order to take over Refugees International, which seems like a worthy enough cause.

The real question, though, is who is going to take over, and just how much more of a mess of things will they make. One could hope for more enlightened leadership, that actually focuses on adapting to the modern age, but all signs suggest the studios have no interest in doing that any time soon.

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Filed Under: dan glickman
Companies: mpaa

25 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 2:55pm

Weird day of the week to leave
I wonder if Dan's decision to leave on April Fools Day has some sort of implied significance. Usually people leave to start new endeavors on Fridays. But it's nice that he found a worthy cause that appears to better support public interest. It would like to see more enlightened leadership, but based on the current climate, it's not worth holding my breath.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 2:55pm

Since these corporate leaders seem to have the power of elected officials I propose they should be directly elected by the people.
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ECA (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 3:17pm

funny thing.
HULU tried to SHOW that things could be done better/different.
But even now Content holders are pulling out and MAKING there own sites..At least the TV industry is seeing something..
Except if you go to some of their sites, they are STILL trying to hold on with Special DRIVERS and SIGNUPS and they cant keep up..Storage space and Bandwidth are suffering.
Even Hulu's site is suffering as IF' they gave up. The sort engine still sucks after 2 years.

Having 2-3 sites to find EVERYTHING would be wonderful. i now hit over 10 sites to find the material I want to see.
The MAIN problem is that they wish to MONETIZE(more money) it. And they dont see how.
Go look at the cartoon sites, they are getting Stupid and UGLY.. CE4kids and FOXkids are the same site, Toonami is GONE, NICK(?), dont make me LOL it hurts, Kidmango and Qubo have old stuff that will NEVER update/change, KidsWB...That is a LMAO..

Just as the Recording industry, they wont release the OLD, they dont make a FULL release, like watching Twilight zone and Skipping Episodes, and the NEW stuff has restrictions on it.

If these PEOPLE?? had a head to think with. They would realize they could market it to HELL and back. And they could DUMP the neilsons, by watching whats being WATCHED/listened to, STRAIGHT from the net.

But, I think its more about TIME/WARNER making profits selling you OLD MUSIC on CD. that the RIAA and other wont make money on, but the contract RESTRICTS them from COMPETITION.
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ECA (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 3:19pm

Re:
I could agree with this.
99% of the government is run by persons NOT elected..
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Richard (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 3:22pm

He listened to me
he's leaving as of April 1 in order to take over Refugees International, which seems like a worthy enough cause.

Wow - he listened to my earlier comment:

http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100122/1010047873#c197
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 3:54pm

To be honest
I will do a quick search to see if the show I want to see is put up, Usally I want the entire show (ep 1-now) so I can understand whats going on in the now.

Hulu is ok for this, it will get rights to a season or 2 but that's about it. Other times it has the new stuff, and sometimes it says "we can only show the last 5 episodes played"

Thus I cant find it for sale, anyplace at all and have to check a torrent.

For older stuff there is Netflix and I wish that they would learn that the court already said "a DVD player is a DVD player and it does not matter where is physically located or how long the cord is" Thus allowing them to deliver DVD's by renting them to specific people in 2-3 hour blocks over the net via its existing stream system. The only block is how many copy's of a specific show it owns.

Even with a system like this, Netflix does not have to physically put the DVD's into a huge bank of players, DVR's work fine so long as a key server is used to ensure only as many copys are being used as are currently owned.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 3:57pm

Re: He listened to me
I should congratulate him.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:00pm

Re: funny thing.
You win the award for the Highest Ratio of Argument-Soundness to Post-Readability.

Another thing that drives me nuts about network streaming offers: they tend to break shows down into even smaller pieces than on TV, putting a commercial between each. Now, I can deal with commercials - in fact I want commercials because I want to see the industry start functioning properly in the digital age. But it seems like they aren't even trying to figure out the most effective way to advertise online - they succeed only in driving me crazy, especially since the players always exit full-screen at every video transition, so you have to get up and fix it.

If they can't even come up with a system that allows me to sit on my couch for a single damn episode, then they don't deserve my business.
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:), 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:17pm

Love LoLcats.
I don't understand why people "have" to do anything.

I like TV shows and movie but those people are getting to greedy for my taste and when I'm watching I actually am not enjoying it anymore. My head get filled with all this crap happening because people are afraid of loosing money and I just can't enjoyed. Moms are being punished, people are being storted or being transformed into indenture servants and all because of those laws I can't support those people knowing it will cause all that pain and suffering to people who did nothing wrong.

That is why I gave up consuming that copyright standard thing.

I use MIRO to watch TV now and try my best to find copyleft programming and is fine by me even if the only things I will see from now on are "scared kitties" at least those don't ruin lifes around the world.

There is more to business then just money. To make money it has to be useful in some way or another and that is not the case for me anymore.

Movies, music and books and a lot of other things are not useful to me if they are being completed controlled by others.

I was justing watching betty the cartoon and it had a message today cartoons don't have messages anymore.

I don't want "copyright art" I want "copyleft art". Why would I promote by consuming something that is bad for me and for others? its like taking poison and complaining after that doctors can't help you because you keep poisoning yourself.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:22pm

I see where he's going with this...
Only by urging governments to crack down on the provision of aid to displaced persons can they ensure that sufficient aid is provided to displaced persons! Genius!
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ECA (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:27pm

Re: Re: funny thing.
Online I can see a commercial 1 time in 15 minutes..
NOT 1 every 5minutes.
esp the cartoon sites. A 24 min cartoon with 3-4 breaks, Just because it is popular?

I hate cable/sat..
If you count the channels you are given, and count the ones you watch.. You watch 15-20 channels, and pay for the rest that you dont watch. ESPN raises rates and YOUR rates go up, even if you dont watch it.
Cable and SAT have a BIG problem also. You can only show National commercials, NOTHING LOCAL.
I went back to an OLD antenna for Digital and analog. and get more independent channels and shows, then regular cable/sat.
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Cynyr (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 4:43pm

Re: To be honest
to be a bit picky about this: "a DVD player is a DVD player..."

Well except for that pesky CSS "encryption" that would need to be broken to send it across the internet. which last i knew was a violation of the Anti-circumvention bits in everyones favorite DMCA. So i'm sure they could stream some DVDs but i know first hand that "the dark knight" won't play correctly unless you use the position given to you by then menu system, and not in the ToC. The key server idea still does not get around the fact that they would need to decrypt a lot of these movies.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 6:16pm

Re: funny thing.
Everything I need is on Adultswim.com.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:24pm

I also see where this is going...
And what his rationale about leaving is ...

Dan Glickman is probably stepping down to not be associated with ACTA. So he can say he is doing humanitarian work for the not for profit Refugees International. Being associated with the fur ball that is going to happen when ACTAs wording is released is a career killer. It is what I would do ...

some quotes from the future ...

South korea already has most of this in place.

The UK is about to do this with the UK's digital economy bill.

Several south american countries are in the process of approving the same sort of legislation.

In the US ... No this will not Impact net neutrality

In the US Verizon is already policing its users using some of the proposed legislation-trade agreement

etc
etc
etc
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Hephaestus (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:37pm

I also see where this is going... (I had to claim this one just to say ... )
And what his rationale about leaving is ...

Dan Glickman is probably stepping down to not be associated with ACTA. So he can say he is doing humanitarian work for the not for profit Refugees International. Being associated with the fur ball that is going to happen when ACTAs wording is released is a career killer. It is what I would do ...

some quotes from the future ...

South korea already has most of this in place.

The UK is about to do this with the UK's digital economy bill.

Several south american countries are in the process of approving the same sort of legislation.

In the US ... No this will not Impact net neutrality.

In the US Verizon is already policing its users using some of the proposed legislation-trade agreement.

If you have nothing to hide you shouldnt be afraid to be monitored.

etc
etc
etc

Hilory Clintons speech and all of the IP stuff going on around the world feels likes a lead up to the justification of ACTA. Watch and see ....
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Hephaestus (profile), 22 Jan 2010 @ 7:40pm

Re: I also see where this is going... (I had to claim this one just to say ... )
Hikory Clinton = Hillary Clinton
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2010 @ 8:30pm

Re: Re: I also see where this is going... (I had to claim this one just to say ... )
Hmm. Have you seen this---

http://bit.ly/8zqCX5
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The Anti-Mike (profile), 23 Jan 2010 @ 3:48am

I think that if you look at the history of many of these sorts of organizations, people often leave just short of their term as they move on to other projects. Heck, plenty of people in public office don't make it to the end of their terms (John Ashcroft, anyone?)

It's only news if you are trying really, really hard to find something to point at.
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Fushta, 23 Jan 2010 @ 6:02am

Re: Weird day of the week to leave
I nominate Mike Masnick as the next head of the MPAA...and RIAA, while we're at it.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2010 @ 10:13am

Re:
Heck, plenty of people in public office don't make it to the end of their terms (John Ashcroft, anyone?)

How about Mark Foley?
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Marcus Carab (profile), 23 Jan 2010 @ 12:44pm

Re: Re: funny thing.
Unfortunately I live in Canada.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2010 @ 4:15pm

Guys - Hmm - scarcity in IP HAS to be artificial - that's the only you can charge for content. Think money - the scarcity is all artificial - but if you just let people copy all they want - it wouldn't be worth anything any more. Would we then have economics challenged journalists exclaiming that the problem is that the government needs a new business model?? Is suing counterfeiters instead of meeting "consumer demand"! Hey we all want more money and more content - but the only way for it to happen is to respect the rules -
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Mike Masnick (profile), 23 Jan 2010 @ 4:48pm

Re:
Guys - Hmm - scarcity in IP HAS to be artificial - that's the only you can charge for content. Think money - the scarcity is all artificial

Funny. Just a few days ago, we explained why money is, in fact, NOT an artificial scarcity:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100121/0919097856.shtml
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2010 @ 5:48pm

Re:
I'd love to respect the rules but the rules have become suspiciously one-sided. Since about the seventies. What was going on in the seventies?
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Almost Anonymous (profile), 25 Jan 2010 @ 9:20am

""" The real question, though, is who is going to take over... """
Could it be... Satan?
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