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

from the changing-his-tune? dept

Thu, Mar 29th 2012 3:49pm — Mike Masnick

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

16 Comments

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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.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2012 @ 4:10pm

Re:
The crazy part is how many people actually believe them.
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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.
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velox (profile), 29 Mar 2012 @ 5:26pm

Re: Re:
In DC: tru$t > believability.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 29 Mar 2012 @ 6:44pm

Re: ISOC vs ICANN
The difference is, unlike ICANN, they can�t.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2012 @ 9:23pm

Re: Re:
Naw their probably too busy Sacrificing babies to Satan.
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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!!!!
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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.
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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!"
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Mar 2012 @ 6:29pm

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