Lights Cameras Lawyers- Peter Huck article

Lights Cameras Lawyers- Hollywood plays hardball in fight against threats such as Kim Dotcom-Peter Huck 19 Sept On January 20 2012 the Hollywood studios suffered perhaps their most humiliating setback in a century of lobbying the US Congress. The film industry had invested huge effort in two measures- The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act both which were assured a passage….But this time the content lobby met it’s match. The Young Turks from Silicon Valley including the heads of Face Book, Google and Twitter unnerved Congress by spearheading a protest collecting 14 million signatures…and hacker group Anonymous crashed the Department of Justice website…on the same day as Hollywood’s defeat. New Zealand police responding to US charges of criminal copyright violation staged their infamous dawn raid on the Coatsville mansion of Kim Dotcom whose Megauload made him Motion Picture Association of America enemy number one….. these days MPAA represents industry giants Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. Founded in 1922 to neutralize censorship the organization has cultivated Washington access by appointing insiders….The current MPAA President was a Democratic Senator for 30 years. And while Hollywood leans towards Democrats Dodd shows the MPAA savvy by reaching across the aisle and is not shy about telling Washington what it wants. … One Dreamworks Studio founder J Katzenberg is a major Hollywood player donating 3 million to Democrat political action committee in 2012 and pursuing other donors to stump up with 30 million. …Fighting piracy is an obsession with the MPAA which claims copyright worth one trillion and 5.4million direct jobs to the US economy in 2012. ‘Today the US Copyright system is a cornerstone of a vibrant economy that in unparalleled in the world’ says MPAA which claims loss of 6 billion a year to copyright pirates…..But does this hardline approach benefit citizens in the nations say involved in the TransPacific Partnership TPP talks? ….given the secrecy that cloaks the TTP talks it is unclean whether fair use will guarantee innovation in the digital era where emails, texts tweets posts, blogs on UTube and other websites have lead to an explosion of content creators and content consumers. Forwarding someone’s email may infringe copyright. Sampling music may trigger legal demands for huge damages. According to press reports the TPP was delayed last year in part because Hollywood wanted tougher anti piracy language. The draft intellectual property provisions leaked by Wikileaks-95 pages of dense heavily footnoted legalese dated August 2013…. TPP would set up extra national tribunals to supersede local courts and hold hearing in secret ‘If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent, if you farm or consume food, if you are ill, or one day might be ill the TPP has you in it’s cross hairs’ thundered Julian Assarge speaking to a packed Auckland Townhall at an event put on by Mr Dotcom….. : So you can see from this wide ranging article- Things done by the very highest levels of the US Government involving the President and Vice President- are upsetting other people around the world. When USA claims to safeguard the world’s freedom and to champion freedom- well other nations are forming a very different opinion about that! Lots to think about as we examine our own hearts. And on a personal note. I used to listen to New Zealand gospel radio. Where they tried to do a lot with not much money. But a few years back Andrea Crouch gave Radio Rhema all his music to play –Copy Right Free. When or if Brooklyn Tabernacle from New York are prepared to do the same- we as a nation will take that church to heart and work with and for them. Or else- well when New York burns and is looted will Brooklyn Tabernacle go to hell because they copy righted everything they ever did with the music God gave to them as a gift? Lots to think about- And yes no copy right applies to anything I publish! paul