Viacom, 'Decimated By Piracy,' But Its CEO Got The Biggest Raise Of Any Exec Anywhere
from the just-saying... dept
We keep hearing about how "piracy" and the internet are somehow "destroying" the old legacy content players, but the evidence for that seems lacking.... especially in Hollywood. We already saw how Warner Bros. was cheering on its record-setting quarter, while complaining about how it just can't compete with piracy. And now we've got reader Don, passing along the news that Viacom chief Philippe P. Dauman topped the charts for the exec with the biggest pay raise in 2010. His total pay was $84.5 million last year -- a 148.6% raise on his previous year's take home. Yes, that's a $50 million raise. Admittedly, much of that comes from stock options, but still. Not bad for a company being "decimated" by kids in their basements on the internet, huh? Maybe Viacom was just so sure that it was going to win its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube that it decided to pre-reward Dauman.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: entertainment industry, philippe dauman, piracy
Companies: viacom
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Dauman's salary was actually DOWN almost 10%.
But because the overall stock market had an absolute rocket ride higher in 2010, this guy made more money (just like anyone else that owned stocks).
But just remember Mike Masnick's new inference from all this:
There are rich people at entertainment companies, so it's ok for you to rip them off.
I'm sure it's only *their* content you'll rip off, and not indies, right? LOL
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But you knew that already.
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So the question becomes; How can you type if you can't read?
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I'm re-using this one.
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And his opinions are lies?
Thanks for admitting what so many of us already know.
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But wait, I know, you got some android device with speech recognition and a screen reader. I knew it wasn't magic!
On a more serious comment, it's amazing on how ppl say "I like rainy days!" and you manage to twist it to "Then you admit you are going to blow up dams to cause floods? You terrorist." - At least it's funny.
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As for Mike and "pro-piracy", all I can say is that his vehement opposition to SOPA and Protect IP seem pretty much in line with supporting piracy, or at least supporting the "soft" piracy of the remix culture.
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There, FTFY. If ever there were a sentence in need of F-ing, it was that one.
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er, well, forget about that last one, yo.
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The stock options may have been worth 40 million now, but maybe if he had taken them X years ago, they woudl have been worth more. I don't follow the stock, I don't know.
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I don't follow your logic... What does one have to do with the other? Being a supporter of file-sharing is certainly not a prerequisite for opposing censorship. While there may be many people who do support file-sharing and oppose PIPA/SOPA, that is by no means the only group who has something to lose. In fact, I would say that file-sharers probably have the least to lose by this legislation since they really won't make a dent in the availability of infringing content.
Unless Ad-Homs are the extent of your debating skills, I would request that you expand on your position to explain the perceived link between the two.
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Mike Masnick is a piracy apologist and everyone knows it. He's obsessed with saving piracy. His denials are pathetic and point to a very real mental illness; a person does not behave the way he does and say the things he says unless there are very serious issues with their pathology.
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On another news: Viacom says piracy decimated its activities.... Oh wait.
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But like most of these companies, they're making plenty of money. They're just greedy, though only insofar as any business is greedy. They see unauthorized uses, add up the licensing fees they think they deserve for that, and say "well we could be making more money". Any company would do the same, but it's still missing the main points that are made repeatedly here: 1) those unauthorized uses are part of the reason they're making so much money to begin with and 2) squeezing every penny out of our culture (music, movies, books, and so on are, to an extent, what define our culture after all) at the cost of limiting our access to that culture is not a fair trade.
These companies could make plenty of money while also improving everyone's access to our cultural output, but they choose to only see the direct money side of the equation and fail at the rest. That's where the point of contention lies IMO.
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Re: AC
To make it simple: Increase in value of stock already owned is Capital gains not salary.
Value of new stock and options given this year is salary.
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Re: Re: AC
If the guy cashed in his options last year, he was going to see a lot of coin.
Exactly like any other person would have seen last year.
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So citation. CNNMoney article used Equilar Data. That data shows Dauman made rounded:
Base Salary 2.6 M
Cash Bonus 11.2 M
Stock Granted 41.8 M
Options Granted 28.6 M
GAAP says stock and options are valued at the time of granting, not at the time in the case of an option that they are exercised, and not at the time in the case of stock that it is sold.
Hence he received 84.4 M in value at the time that he received it. It is not other years options being cashed now with the stock price high. It isn't something that was worth on 50 M when he received it, but then grew. The man received 84.4 M in salary.
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OWS
OWS would have a field day...
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Re: OWS
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And what will we do with all those surplus lobsters?
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Go ahead and rip off music and movies because some of the companies that release them have executives that are well paid.
Great plan, Mike.
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What this article is pointing out that you fail to understand or you do understand but wish to obfuscate is that the claim that piracy is killing the industry looks pretty ridiculous in the face of record pay for the CEO.
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But feel free to ignore all the data out there telling you that "piracy" isn't hurting the industry as a whole.
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What the hell do you think the point of this blog is? LOL
Ask Masnick how many gigs of music he has on his drives.
Now ask him for the receipts. LOL
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Direct quote, by you. Now the question is, why are you such a sliemball, freetard, piracy apologist Anonymous Coward?
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I wonder if philly is gonna buy some?
On another /note, I think his bonus is well deserved if he limited piracy to 10% (not much higher than shrinkage in a brick and mortar store) especially since I do hear an awful lot about piracy (from the seas to the keys) these days.
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But there's less than 100 this time around, whereas before, it was just about 850 people.
So you might want to change the good paying jobs bit. The company isn't bleeding money except to the CEO who is gutting it.
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I wish I was the head of a decimated industry
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As outrageous as the amount is, it gets even worse when you compare to a 0,99 cent song in itunes.
I wonder if the industry losses don't come from overpaid execs... /sarcasm
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
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Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
... and this is the reason for the cloaked censorship attempt.
Piracy is simply the excuse for censoring all communications. There are those who fear the masses becoming more irate as the abuses increase in severity. The logical choice would be to stop abusing the general public and begin treating them like human beings - but that will probably not happen anytime soon because the peons are expendable.
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Which is textbook corporatism, not capitalism.
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Jobs are created due to demand, not because companies are benevolent "job creators" and there will be less demand if consumers don't have the money to make purchases (or pay for "licenses"). It's a vicious cycle that ends with the corporations just finding another market to leech profits from after its drained the American economy dry and created Fritz Lang's Metropolis here.
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VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
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Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
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No, but that is a good example of copytard mentality.
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Soon they may get their day....................
I hate these greedy people.
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Bonus
Don't get me wrong...Piracy is wrong. But piracy isn't ever going to go away completely. However, as Apple showed, if you give people the right product for the right price in the right way, piracy becomes marginal.
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duh
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Re: duh
AFAIK - The point of contention is the rate of change in CEO to worker compensation.
http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_snapshots_20060621/
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And once again...
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SOPA
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Viacom's CEO steals money from employees and blames it on pirates
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Piracy
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Re: Piracy
'Preview' is my friend
'Preview' is my friend
'Preview' is my friend
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