MPAA Wonders Why Public Views Them (and RIAA) So Poorly

There is a devestating post in response to comments made by Fritz Attaway, executive vice president and senior policy adviser for the MPAA at the World Copyright Summit, who said:

”The enemies of copyright have really done a good job at creating the false premise that the interest of copyright holders and the interest of society as a whole are antagonistic, and they always talk about the need for balance.”   LINK

ZeroPaid’s Drew Wilson asks, “Gee, why would the public view them as antogonistic?” He then answers with a few possibilities:

…destroying Napster and Audio Galaxy and not creating an alternative for the get-go, raiding people’s homes because they uploaded Star Wars (not necessarily leaking it in the first place), hacking the URN hash and polluting FastTrack, hacking The Pirate Bay, having Viacom serve DMCA notices to people posting video’s of people eating in a restaurant on YouTube, suing tens of thousands of average American’s including fining one individual $222,000 for sharing a couple songs, saying that files in a shared directory is copyright infringement in court, saying that evidence is too hard to get and that the industry shouldn’t be burdened to prove their cases in court, suggesting that iPods are little more than little pirate ships…

And that’s just  a taste of the entire post.  When people of the future look back at how the massive entertainment industries of the late-20th Century crumbled, this post would be a good starting point.

Jackasses Get It

PaidContent has a quick look at the new site being launched by Johnny Knoxville’s rowdy group known collectively as JACKASS, in conjunction with their longtime partners, Viacom.

Called JackassWorld the site will feature original video stunts that have made the group famous.  I like what Knoxville had to say about the opportunity:

“It’s fun, man, having this outlet, you don’t have to wait for months to have something come out you can just shoot it and get it up and be on to something else… like productivity in the a**hole department is going to be up 73 percent, you know what I mean?”

The sort of content Jackass is famous for is perfect for the web.  It might not be everyone’s cup of tea but for those who like this stuff, this will be a regular stop on their daily surf.

MTV needs a reality check

A post over at NewTeeVee discusses MTV likely embracing of the NBC-sponsored (I believe) web-video portal Hulu and their dislike of YouTube.  Not much to the whole piece, except for this total gem:

““YouTube without us — what is there?” added Courtney Holt, executive vice president of digital music and media for MTV Networks’ Music & Logo Group. “Even without Viacom it’s still driven by professional content, it’s not cats chasing string.” That comment might not be popular with the YouTube crowd, who’d have things like Smosh’s 100-million-plus total views to prove their point. ”

Honestly, Viacom could remove every single video that even had a whiff of copyright violation and it wouldn’t even make dent in YouTube’s viewership.  It is a classic example of a large media executive complete misunderstanding this brave new world.

If I were in charge at MTV I’d serious consider finding a replacement for Ms. Holt. Pronto.