US Chamber Of Commerce Quickly Showing That It's Out Of Touch, As Google, CEA Consider Dropping Out

Viacom, 'Decimated By Piracy,' But Its CEO Got The Biggest Raise Of Any Exec Anywhere

from the just-saying... dept

Mon, Nov 7th 2011 7:30am — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: entertainment industry, philippe dauman, piracy
Companies: viacom

86 Comments

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Scooters (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 6:47am

Are those stock options investments in lawyer firms across the country?
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:14am
  
  Re:
  Masnick is such a slimeball.
  
  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
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:19am
    
    Re: Re:
    I like how you bitch and complain about Mike twisting facts to fit his "pro-piracy" outlook while at the same time you twist facts so you can claim he has a "pro-piracy" outlook.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:35am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      No twisting necessary. It's obvious to anyone that can read.
      
      But you knew that already.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:46am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        TechDirt's opinion is obvious to anyone that can read, and I did know that.
        
        So the question becomes; How can you type if you can't read?
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Bengie, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:09am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        BWAAA-HAHAAHAAHA!!!
        
        I'm re-using this one.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 6:52pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        So Mike just gives opinions and not facts?
        
        And his opinions are lies?
        
        Thanks for admitting what so many of us already know.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Ninja (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 7:59am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Yep, Chronno is right, how the fuck can you type if you can't read?
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - The Logician (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:50am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Obvious only to those who seek to create such a fantasy, AC 37. Or live in it, as you do. Those of us who dwell in reality know otherwise. The fact that you provide no evidence for your position of any kind makes it invalid. That and your tendency to result to insults over actually addressing what is said. Your very presence proves that Mike is correct, because if he was not, you and your kind would not swarm his blog every day as you do. If indeed you and the other AC's like you are not, in fact, the same person using multiple addresses. Which is, in fact, a distinct possibility.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:08am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Chronno, let's be fair here. Exclude the single even stock options, and his salary is down. Why be so misleading? Truth is the stock options may be a "last hurrah" as the ship slowly sinks.
      
      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.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - John Doe, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:12am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        But don't stock prices reflect the performance of the company and industry? So the result is that the company and the market must look pretty promising to garner such large pay and stock performance. That doesn't jibe for a market that is supposedly being decimated by piracy
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        dwg, 7 Nov 2011 @ 1:54pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Stock prices don't reflect the performance of the company and industry.
        
        There, FTFY. If ever there were a sentence in need of F-ing, it was that one.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Planespotter (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:15am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Or they could be in line with his vehement opposition to laws being passed on behalf of legacy industries who have failed to embrace change and the arrival of the digital era, laws which are written so broadly that they could impact on the very fabric of how the internet was created and stifle freedom of speech and the ideals put forth in the Constitution, ideals supposedly protected by the Supreme Court.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2011 @ 4:28am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        DUE PROCESS! FREE SPEECH! THE CONSTITUTION! MY ADDICTION TO FREE CONTENT!
        
        er, well, forget about that last one, yo.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        PaulT (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 5:22am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        You seem to have a pathological need to lie about anyone who disagrees with you, don't you? I suppose it makes it easier to type when you can attack a falsehood rather than a person's actual position.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:39am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Well if his stock options were up so much, piracy can't be taking that much of a toll eh? See how circular logic works?
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 2:07pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        It would depend where he was vested... what the strike prices was set at. It would also depend how they were granted.
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Brendan (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:22pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I don't think you know what circular logic is.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Franklin G Ryzzo (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 4:09pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        "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."
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 6:56pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        We can say whatever we want at this point.
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Ninja (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 8:08am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Wait. When a company is doing good the stocks go up, right? So Viacom is doing GREAT because despite the reduction in his fixed income he actually earned shitloads with his stocks in the company. Right?
        
        On another news: Viacom says piracy decimated its activities.... Oh wait.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - MonkeyFracasJr (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:21am
    
    Re: Re:
    Are you drunk?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Scooters (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:25am
    
    Re: Re:
    Troll trap caught another one. I feel I have to do my part to keep you all safe from natural selection.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - RD, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:42am
    
    Re: Re:
    I love AC comments like this, since I can just rip down the page clicking "report" and skip all the bile, lies, misdirection and outright hypocrisy.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - antimatter3009 (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:24am
    
    Re: Re:
    I'll give you that it's a bit ridiculous to treat higher stock prices as a raise, but on the other hand would you expect the stock of a "decimated" company to be rising so fast? Shouldn't they be crashing?
    
    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.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - WDS (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:39am
    
    Re: AC
    The cash handed to him was down. However the increase was not from stock that he already owned, it was from new stock and options give to him in 2010. That is still an increase in salary.
    
    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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    - Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2011 @ 4:32am
      
      Re: Re: AC
      You have no citation for this.
      
      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.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - WDS (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:51pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: AC
        Please accept my apology for the lack of citation. I just assumed that someone making comments about this would have possible gone to the original article and read it.
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jay (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:23am

OWS
So does this mean Philippe P. Dauman is the 1%?
OWS would have a field day...
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:34am
  
  Re: OWS
  Everything I've read has the top 1% being folks making over 1.5 million a year w/a total net worth north of $7million....so yes, he'd be the top 1%....
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Marcus, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:49am
    
    Re: Re: OWS
    How will he remain there if people keep pirating his stuff?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Modplan (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re: OWS
      Won't someone think of the executives? Does no one care for the CEO's?
      
      And what will we do with all those surplus lobsters?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:06am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        This is Masnick's new plan for encouraging piracy:
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        John Doe, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:47am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        Very good misdirection there, but we are on to your tricks. He is not inferring that piracy is ok as he is on the record many times stating that he doesn't pirate and doesn't think other should either.
        
        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.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Planespotter (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:19am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        Especially when another legacy company Time Warner posts yet another record breaking quaterly profit.
        
        But feel free to ignore all the data out there telling you that "piracy" isn't hurting the industry as a whole.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2011 @ 4:36am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        Of course he's inferring piracy is ok. Duh.
        
        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
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Ninja (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 8:14am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        Man, do you keep your receipts? That's sort of pathological. And I'm sure that if Mike had those and showed you you'd tell him it was everything forged. Give up dude, don't make yourself a fool more than you already are ;)
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2011 @ 8:58am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        Mike's already offered to show him receipts. He even said so in another article recently, at which point the AC stopped commenting. The AC is all bark, no bite. Or better said, when called out, he'll slink off to go back under his bridge.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
        
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:27am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OWS
        "Go ahead and rip off music and movies" -by Anonymous Coward, Nov 7th, 2011 @ 9:06am
        
        Direct quote, by you. Now the question is, why are you such a sliemball, freetard, piracy apologist Anonymous Coward?
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - The Incoherent One (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:42am
      
      Re: Re: Re: OWS
      If you actually blow threw that kind of money in a short amount of time then you had it coming
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jesse, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:14pm
    
    Re: Re: OWS
    Everything I saw said anything above $500,000. /shrug
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
abc gum, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:44am

Well, thank god the rich people are doing ok. I would hate to see any of those "job creates" hit hard times - because then there might be a lot of unemployed people or something.
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:41am
  
  Re:
  According to Ferrari the outlook is outstanding.
  
  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.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
jupiterkansas (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:53am

Hmm... that's at least 845 good paying jobs. I wonder how many people Viacom fired this year to give him that bonus? Where's AC to call us evil freetards?
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- Jay (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:26am
  
  Re:
  Oh, and Viacom owns a Harmonix when they laid off 39 employees.
  
  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.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
John Doe, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:54am

I wish I was the head of a decimated industry
If I only I could lead a company being decimated by pirates. And here I thought only pirates could monetize IP. Looks like CEO's know pretty well how to monetize IP.
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PrometheeFeu (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:54am

Oh look. People with government-granted monopolies are making boat-loads of money... What a novel trend!
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Ninja (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:00am

And he earned millions for doing... What has he done again?

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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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:03am

$50 million would create a thousand $50K jobs. Is piracy really killing jobs or are executive bonuses?
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Jibou, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:04am

He's also and simply the best paid CEO... http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/news/1104/gallery.top_ceo_pay/index.html?iid=F_Jump
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:08am

I was seeing on the news that right now, the wage to profit ratio is at an all time low. Companies are making huge profits and paying the average American very little in wages.
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- Donnicton, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:14am
  
  Re:
  "Industry best practices".
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:15am
  
  Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
  OWS is the beginning of the revolution. When the time comes, do not expect your government to behave any better than Syria's. They are already tear gassing your people. Did you know that it is illegal under the conventions of war to use tear gas against the enemy? But it's OK for your government to use it against it's people.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - John Doe, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:17am
    
    Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
    Don't forget the pepper spray.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:51am
    
    Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
    "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -JFK
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:52am
      
      Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
      (also a response to John Doe's pepper spray comment).
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:03am
    
    Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
    OWS is the start of nothing, except proof that there will always be whiners,and the internet social media allows them to clump together and think they are powerful.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:56am
      
      Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
      IP maximists are the worst whiners. They already have outrageously overreaching laws and they still want more.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - el_segfaulto (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:12am
      
      Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
      The original U.S. rebellion was also lead by a bunch of "whiners" so please, go ahead and egg them on further. The social inequality that has been wider and wider will eventually come to bite the 1%ers on their collective solid gold ass.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - abc gum, 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:23am
      
      Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Nov 7th, 2011 @ 8:08am
      "the internet social media allows them to clump together and think they are powerful"
      
      ... 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.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- PlagueSD (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:24am
  
  Re:
  Welcome to Capitalism
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:55am
    
    Re: Re:
    HAH! We live in a society where the government establishes monopoly privileges on almost everything. Hardly a capitalistic society.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - MrWilson, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:22am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      But the government is doing so at the behest of the corporations that have purchased it on the free market because they have the capital and own the means of (money) production.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - xenomancer (profile), 8 Nov 2011 @ 5:16am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        "But the government is doing so at the behest of the corporations that have purchased it on the free market because they have the capital and own the means of (money) production."
        
        Which is textbook corporatism, not capitalism.
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- MrWilson, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:43am
  
  Re:
  And there's another good reason for piracy caused by the companies who complain about it. It's not just entertainment companies of course, but the fact that so many companies are hoarding profits and not creating more jobs means fewer Americans have jobs and thus incomes in order to have the money to patronize their businesses. Fewer people would balk at the high prices of media these days if more people were doing well financially. The companies will say it's not their fault, but look who is profiting and who is holding the money...
  
  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.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 7:18pm
  
  Re:
  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/01/robert-reich/robert-reich-says-ratio- corporate-profits-wages-hi/
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:39am

You don't understand, when they said 'decimated' what they meant was they freed up 10% of the wages from entry level workers up through middle management, said it was a result of 'piracy', and then appropriated the 10% to the CEO because the money has to go somewhere right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- MrWilson, 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:45am
  
  Re:
  That's a good theory and probably on the mark, but you should recall that according to at least the public relations departments of the entertainment companies, lost money just disappears from the economy instead of being spent elsewhere.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Devil's Coachman (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:48am

VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
Why the hell would anyone pirate the shit that Viacom produces? If those punk-ass bitches gave it away for free I wouldn't accept it. Pure, unadulterated shit! And people actually pirate it? There's just no explaining this, is there?
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- Jay (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:00am
  
  Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
  Have you ever tried to play Rockband?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - abc gum, 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:26am
    
    Re: Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
    "Have you ever tried to play Rockband?"
    
    No, but that is a good example of copytard mentality.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Jay (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 1:23pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
      ??? Bwuh?
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
      - abc gum, 7 Nov 2011 @ 2:48pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
        They demand the rockband licensed music to be different than that of the released content .... bleh - yeah comment should've been more explicit
        [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Etan, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:40pm
  
  Re: VIacom? Piracy? WTF?
  I agree with you, but Viacom owns a lot of media outlets, and there are a few good shows on Comedy Central. I haven't had cable TV in 3 years, and now I live in a place with roommates who cannot live without it. The scene helped me live commercial free for a while. 95% of cable TV is pure drivel. You're not missing anything.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
gorehound (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 8:51am

Another scumbag who deserves to go to his grave.Millions of us are unemployed and these schmucks walk away with tens or hundreds of millions per year.
Soon they may get their day....................
I hate these greedy people.
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Lesath (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 9:30am

Wow if it wasn't for 'piracy' I bet even more executives would have been able to get a bonus.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:18am

Viacom is just like Wall Street, paying their 'banker' (err, CEO) huge bonuses, before his big risky bets blow up in their face.
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Lord Scuttlebutt (profile), 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:29am

Bonus
It seems to me that the issue at hand isn't Daumer's bonus at all. He's doing his job admirably! Making sure that all the right pockets are being greased in Washington is tough work. The real issue lies in Viacom's overall financial situation when compared to the fuss they've been making over piracy. I'm willing to bet that Viacom's financials don't tell a story of victimization.
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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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2011 @ 10:51am

duh
CEO's always get huge pay raises, no matter what.
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- abc gum, 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:30am
  
  Re: duh
  "CEO's always get huge pay raises, no matter what."
  
  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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ScytheNoire, 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:21am

And this is what is wrong with America. No wonder 99% of the population is pissed off.
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paflechien, 7 Nov 2011 @ 11:37am

And once again...
nothing can be done against that. That's the worst part ofall that stuff. We know it happens, there's news about that happening, and... nothing.
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Carl, 7 Nov 2011 @ 5:06pm

SOPA
This has nothing to do with piracy. A goverment can only control the people by controlling the media. The Government has MPAA under its control. It wants to control the internet and its content. It is the one true thing that they can't control, no matter how they try. This is just what Hitler, Stalin, and Lenin did. "BIG BROTHER" is here!
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Provert, 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:08am

Viacom's CEO steals money from employees and blames it on pirates
http://i.imgur.com/QcHGt.jpg
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albert, 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:34pm

Piracy
Viacom and the other media outfits copied the policies of the old Hollywood movie moguls. Most movies never turn a profit, thanks to creative (not illegal) accounting practices. They need 'piracy issues' to justify sales downturns, lest they find themselves out of a job. Media middlemen make more, and do less, than any other product-producing business. Banks are worse, but they are non-productive businesses. The cure is to stop buying their products. A total boycott would ruin them, and even the government is crazy enough to subsidize them, though they might try.
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albert, 8 Nov 2011 @ 12:37pm

Re: Piracy
Sorry, that should be: "..isn't crazy.."

'Preview' is my friend
'Preview' is my friend
'Preview' is my friend
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