MPAA CTO Jumps Ship To Internet Society, An Opponent Of Greater Online Copyright Enforcement

from the changing-his-tune? dept

Back in January, the day before the big anti-SOPA blackout, I was on a panel at the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net event, and one of the other panelists was the MPAA's Chief Technology Policy Officer, Paul Brigner. Brigner had been somewhat vocal in defending the MPAA's position on SOPA/PIPA -- and especially its view that there were no problems with DNS blocking. In a blog post last summer, he wrote:
DNSSEC was designed to provide consumers with a secure, trusted connection to services like online banking, commercial transactions, and electronic medical records - not to foreign websites operated by criminals for the purpose of offering counterfeit and infringing works. These evolving protocols should be flexible enough to allow for government, acting pursuant to a court order, to protect intellectual property online.
That shows a rather complete misunderstanding of how DNSSEC works, which is odd, because Brigner should know better. However, in the brief time that I did get to talk with Brigner, he struck me as one of the more reasonable folks at the MPAA, and I wondered if he was pressured into writing such nonsense that completely misses the point. In fact, on that panel back in January, it seemed pretty clear that he was conflicted about his views on this particular issue.

I bring all this up, because Brigner has left the MPAA after just about a year, and has joined the Internet Society, an organization who has made it clear that it opposes these efforts to expand online enforcement strategies. There's been some concern that Brigner now becomes the MPAA's voice over at ISOC, and moves them away from this position.

I'm hopeful, however, that the true story is that ISOC's position on things is a lot more aligned with what Brigner's true feelings on these matters are, and that what he said while employed by the MPAA was more about the job than what he really felt.
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Filed Under: copyright, paul brigner, sopa
Companies: isoc, mpaa


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2012 @ 3:58pm

    You almost get the impression that the people actually running the MPAA understand that it's about control and not piracy, and the people they hire to do their bidding have a tendency to quit once they realize that and have to come to terms with having a job that consists of lying to everyone continuously.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2012 @ 4:41pm

    Well, either he was knowingly lying while working for the MPAA which hardly makes him someone anyone should trust, or he was more ignorant than he should have been about things he should not be ignorant about for the position he held which again hardly makes him someone you would want working for your organisation.

    I can understand peoples' suspicions that it is a ploy by the MPAA to undermine the people who present the facts they don't like and don't find it encouraging that he is working with ISOC.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      TtfnJohn (profile), 29 Mar 2012 @ 6:33pm

      Re: Reality Strikes

      The reality is that if you work for someone, even the MPAA, if you're speaking FOR them or could be construed as speaking for them as Brigner would have been at their CTO you tell their story as ludicrous as it may be. As their CTO he'd even be challenged to make sound both simple and reasonable. It made him sound a bit of an idiot but he did try from Mike's quote.

      I don't like the idea of him working for ISOC if that means they're moving in his direction though there is no change in their mission statement or they're statements concerning Internet censorship and freedom.

      I'd like to think Brigner is more aligned with what the ISOC stands for that he was allowed to say as the CTO of the MPAA. But the situation does bear watching.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 30 Mar 2012 @ 7:11am

        Re: Re: Reality Strikes

        "you tell their story as ludicrous as it may be."

        but ... but ... but ... piracy is costing billions of jobs a day!!!!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          TtfnJohn (profile), 31 Mar 2012 @ 9:55am

          Re: Re: Re: Reality Strikes

          I have a misdirected email for you here from the RIAA offering you the vacant job as the RIAA CTO. All you have to do is surgically remove all your ethics, morals and any and all sense of reality. Forwarding it now!

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 29 Mar 2012 @ 5:48pm

    Someone tackle him and look inside to make sure that Sherman and Dodd aren't hiding in there.
    It screams Trojan Horse, and it might not be... but given the lengths the **AA's are willing to goto... better safe than sorry.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Mar 2012 @ 6:43pm

      Re:

      Someone tackle him and look inside to make sure that Sherman and Dodd aren't hiding in there.

      So, a deep packet inspection of his person?

      I'm OK with that.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Hephaestus (profile), 30 Mar 2012 @ 8:10am

      Re:

      "Someone tackle him and look inside to make sure that Sherman and Dodd aren't hiding in there."

      There is a "wrecked him, could have killed him" joke in there somewhere.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Hephaestus (profile), 30 Mar 2012 @ 8:13am

        Re: Re:

        Here is the original joke ...

        Little Johnnie's teacher asked him how his weekend was.
        "Horribly, a car hit my dog in the ass," he said.
        She said, "Rectum."
        "Wrecked him?" Johnnie said. "Damn near killed him!"

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    AC Cobra, 29 Mar 2012 @ 6:00pm

    ISOC

    Isn't ISOC leaning towards collusion with the MPAA and the media conglomerates these days? How are they related to ICANN?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Mar 2012 @ 6:29pm

    "But... jobs! (doesn't work) But... terrorists! (doesn't work) But... think about the children! (it works)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Wally (profile), 2 Apr 2012 @ 10:57am

    Gabe Newell

    "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

    -Gabe Newell, regarding piracy

    What does the MPAA try to control???? the distribution of when and where their movies are released and what format....

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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