Australian Movie Studio Boss Skips Out On Public Q&A, Claiming It Will Be Filled With 'Crazies'
from the respecting-the-public dept
Last month we wrote about a new copyright reform proposal in Australia, which is basically Hollywood's wishlist. It was put together by George Brandis, who completely flat out ignored the proposals of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), despite it going through a long and detailed process to come up with quite reasonable reforms. Instead, Brandis buddied up with Hollywood insiders representing US interests, and totally ignored consumer groups.In response to the proposal, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull (who has, apparently, been pushing for more reasonable rules to dilute Brandis' extreme proposals) said that a public hearing would be held in September to discuss the proposal, getting a variety of stakeholders in the room together, including consumer rights groups. The major Australian studio, Village Roadshow (the "token" Australian studio in the failed Hollywood-driven effort to sue ISP iiNet a few years back), has apparently decided to opt out of attending the session. While the company's CEO Graham Burke originally said he couldn't make it because he'd be overseas, he actually told Turnbull that he was skipping it because he didn't want to deal with "crazies," by which he apparently means the public who are concerned about their rights being trampled:
“My company is not prepared to participate in the forum. As expressed to you previously these Q and A style formats are judged by the noise on the night and given the proposed venue I believe this will be weighted by the crazies,” Burke told the Minister.Nice to see what they really think of the public and concerns about how the new rules might trample free speech, an open internet or the nature of innovation. It's a pretty weak argument, showing real desperation when someone insists that the concerns being raised by public interest groups and ISPs about significant legal changes that will have a major impact on the internet as a whole, are just "a miniscule group whose hidden agenda is theft of movies." No one's "agenda" is "theft of movies." People are legitimately concerned about the consequences of putting liability on ISPs over actions of their users. The near certain response is to lead to massive censorship, blocking of free speech, and much greater expenses for consumers -- none of which will have any real impact on infringement of movies.
[....]
“What is at stake here is the very future of Australian film production itself and it is too crucially important to Australia’s economy and the fabric of our society to put at risk with what will be a miniscule group whose hidden agenda is theft of movies,” Burke told the Minister.
It seems quite telling, actually, that Burke apparently recognizes that he has no good responses to these concerns, and can only respond through insults and ad hominems.
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Filed Under: australia, copyright, copyright reform, george brandis, graham burke, malcolm turnbull, public comment
Companies: village roadshow
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There is a reason why these policies in making are always behind closed doors with no public invited. If the public knew what they were up to they would be out in the streets protesting these actions. It can't stand the light of day shining in on the real crazies.
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It's because they're vampires, sucking money out of everything and leaving nothing but a corpse behind to rot away, all to fuel their insatiable hunger.
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Sounds familiar
Hey, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, from the shills and trolls that comment here! Smells like a published talking point to me.
Of course, it's complete bullshit.
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Crazies...
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I win 100%
Can I start using that?
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A 'variety of stakeholders' could include movie studios, production companies, performance rights groups, lobbyists, etc.
I think it sounds like a bunch of crazies too.
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Re: I win 100%
Completely eliminates the crazies.
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Society is at risk unless the Australian film industry is allowed to Save The Day? No I think that's already been done, that was Invasion of the Body Snatchers right? Get me a better plot, and oh yeah get me some better actors.
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Re: Crazies...
Fucking idiots.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy: Go, and it will be filled with crazy. Stay home to avoid the crazy, and it won't be there.
Everybody wins!
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Actually that's exactly what the agenda is. Everyone is willing to admit that but you and that's why you people are refered to as crazies. The End.
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Fabric of our society = middle men overcharging and promoting artificial scarcity?
We clearly aren't living in the same society.
as usual they are totally unwilling to address the issues caused by them and only them.
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Even internet pirates have the potential to be customers. You know why? Because setting up torrenting software can actually be pretty difficult. You have to configure it to account for proxies, firewalls, and such, and difficulties such as lack of peers and swarms of leechers with no seeders can make torrenting movies frustrating to do.
As Redbox and Netflix have shown, if you make movies conveniently available, even pirates will pay for them just so they can avoid a lot of hassle.
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That little snippet was my favourite part of Burke's comments and what it's all about. In other words we will continue to screw Australian consumers and you can't do anything. The man is a Grade A Wanker.
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Fancy thinking that the Australian public should have an equal say to the American corporations when it comes to Australian laws. CRAZY
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Just as well Australia isn't at war with the US
Otherwise Brandis could be shot as a traitor.
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Who is this "everyone" you refer to?
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It's a sign of the times when even a coal mining magnate like Clive Palmer is actually more reasonable than the governing regime.
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That is *your* agenda.
You need to stop lying.
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Village Idiot
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Not any more.
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