DailyTech - MPAA Chooses Former Sen. Kerrey as New Head

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Internet MPAA Chooses Former Sen. Kerrey as New Head
Michael Barkoviak - July 26, 2010 8:21 AM

32 comment(s) - last by dtm4trix.. on Jul 28 at 5:18 AM

Bob Kerrey (Source: Politico)

MPAA close to recruiting new CEO that could be powerful ally in Washington

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) will call upon a former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Navy SEAL to become the trade group's new leader.

Former Senator Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, has reportedly agreed to a $1.2 million yearly salary after two months of negotiations. During a radio show last week with Don Imus, Kerrey confirmed he is "talking very seriously" with MPAA officials, and said "we're in the final stages of negotiations."

"I do think it's a done deal," sources told The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke the story. "It's just a question of picking a starting date."

The Medal of Honor recipient tried to become the Democratic presidential nominee in 1992, but fell short to rivals including Bill Clinton. Kerrey remains president of the New School University in New York, and will not take the MPAA position until his contract ends. Furthermore, Kerrey served 12 years in the U.S. Senate, and has been able to gain support among Democrats and Republicans alike.

The MPAA continues to battle sluggish DVD sales and peer-to-peer piracy, while the group plans to focus more on pressuring ISPs into policing their users. ISPs continue to cooperate when approached with a court-ordered subpoena, but still feel uneasy disconnecting subscribers.

Kerrey's strong political background could give the MPAA a powerful ally when it comes time to launch wide-scale crackdowns on piracy.

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Good reason to vote for independent

By gorehound on 7/26/2010 8:44:55 AM , Rating: 5

i intend on voting for a decent politician (if one exists) who is not democrat/republican.
i am fed up with these parties who are filled with industry lobbyists and folks taking the money and not fixing our country.this government is making us the united corporate states of america.
government is supposed to serve the people not just the rich corporations.
be careful when you vote again.that is all i am saying

RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By HostileEffect on 7/26/2010 9:13:52 AM , Rating: 1

Restore the constitution to its rightful place of supreme law of the land in whats left of this constitutional republic... There are two such people that claim to want just that. Ron Paul and Rand Paul.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dreddly on 7/26/2010 9:22:28 AM , Rating: 2

Foreign Policy will always undermine the constitution because the law itself is corrupt.

The standard for something to become international law is that no state opposes it - there is no room for the people in the current international system and the US alone cannot stop it, as it was integral in creating it.

You need a reform of the constitutional system of the US if you are going to accomplish anything...

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By HostileEffect on 7/26/2010 10:03:54 AM , Rating: 2

Foreign policy should be trade with all nations and alliances with none, save for Briton and Canada. The only reform the constitution could use is the repealing of the 16th amendment. We could use some politicians do what they are supposed to do and uphold the constitution but that will only come when the people start voting them all out in mass.

International law seems to be selective enforcement and I find little use for any of it.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dreddly on 7/26/2010 11:12:41 AM , Rating: 2

The desire to trade without military alliances was one of the causes of WW1.

If international trade is taking place there needs to me international management which is the basis of world government (see the impossible trinity thesis).

The separation of powers has only reinforced the power of multinational and international influence as it reduces the power of the populace in the bi-polar US system.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By vanka on 7/26/2010 5:43:29 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
The desire to trade without military alliances was one of the causes of WW1.

I'm sorry, what? The cause of WWI was the unjustified invasion of the Kingdom of Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were both backed and encouraged by the German Empire. Both invading empires understood that by invading Serbia they ran the risk of a world war, but since Austria was experiencing domestic trouble and wanted a greater influence in the Balkans - it decided to attack Serbian while Russia (Serbia's ally) was in the process of modernizing their military. Their biggest concern was the British Empire - which is why Germany went to bat by acting as a neutral party and mediator all the while encouraging Austria to invade and promising military support. Thus, all attempts at negotiations for peace went ignore by Austria/Germany (with Germany even "forgetting" to deliver some messages on time); when Austria invaded Serbia, Germany invaded Belgium and France which finally drew in Britain on the side of the Allied powers (Britain, Russia, Italy, France, and later joined by the US). What finally convinced the US Congress to join the War was Germany's illegal sinking of US merchant/commercial ships.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By cmdrdredd on 7/26/2010 11:43:13 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
You need a reform of the constitutional system of the US if you are going to accomplish anything...

NO!

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By frobizzle on 7/26/2010 10:19:18 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Restore the constitution to its rightful place of supreme law of the land in whats left of this constitutional republic... There are two such people that claim to want just that. Ron Paul and Rand Paul.

You're joking, right? Ron Paul and his son, TweedleDUM are two raving hypocrites! If Paul was truly Libertarian there would be an 'I' after his name, not an 'R'. However he has chosen to suck at the teat of the Republican party and again, that makes him a hypocrite.

Now, let the modding down begin! LOL!

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dreddly on 7/26/2010 9:19:17 AM , Rating: 3

North America needs a Pirate Party like Sweden, but you would quickly see how corrupt the system is if one even started assembling...

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By raumkrieger on 7/26/2010 9:22:12 AM , Rating: 3

Sorry but "decent politician" is an oxymoron. The only vote I cast is whether or not to order pizza.

The stronger the enemy is the more noble it is to fight him. The MPAA could get Santa Claus, god, and Cthulhu on their side and I wouldn't give in.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By MrBlastman on 7/26/2010 10:45:40 AM , Rating: 4

Here here! I'm fed up with voting for the "better of two evils." I vowed not too long ago to my wife to stop the madness and vote for who I thinks best, even if it means _not_ voting for either the republican or the democrat.

We've had crap presidents in office for 22 years now (well, Bush Sr. was marginally crap but he gets included in this list) all due to crap voting and look at where it has landed us--nowhere! We've been stagnant this whole time.

It is high time Americans stand up to this madness and vote with their minds, not their fears. If they fear candidate X beating candidate Y, but BOTH candidate X and Y suck, don't vote for either of them! Vote for candidate Z instead, even if they are independent.

This petty logic that so many vote with is what is truly hurting us. They reason, they hate the Democrat so they vote Republican, or, they hate the Republican and vote for the Democrat. Look at where that has gotten us. We go from one stinking pile of crap to another.

If the two major parties can't give us someone worth a darn to vote for (we _have_ had decent candidates in the primaries but they never make it to the finals), then don't vote for them. Voting is a loaded gun and you go to the booth to pull the trigger. People should vote responsibly and realize the consequences of who they pick.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By frobizzle on 7/26/2010 11:09:30 AM , Rating: 2

There should be a choice in every race for "None of the above". If that gets the most votes, new candidates must be chosen and a new election held in 21 days.

I agree with you. We have non-choices for every office in every election and I have simply exercised my choice and stopped voting.

In the immortal words of Casey Stengel, "Throw da bums out!"

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By MrBlastman on 7/26/2010 12:22:14 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
There should be a choice in every race for "None of the above". If that gets the most votes, new candidates must be chosen and a new election held in 21 days.

This is actually not that bad of an idea. :) I can just imagine the expression of the candidates when the people vote:

"None of the above."

The look of rejection on their faces will be priceless. :) It isn't that, "hey, we liked the other guy better than you!," but more the message of "you guys just suck!"

That I think will send a message loud and clear to the candidates that we are fed up with it all. I suggest we ratify this amendment to the voting laws immediately.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By nshoe on 7/26/2010 12:02:17 PM , Rating: 2

The problem is there are enough people who will simply vote for all republicans or all democrats that unless a large majority of the rest vote for a single 3rd party candidate then their votes are wasted. So many people who would vote for a 3rd party candidate are left with the choice of voting for the person they prefer and having that vote wasted, or voting strategically to try to keep out someone they really don't want.

This is a failing of the plurality voting system - of course, the parties in charge have a vested interest in keeping the voting system the way it is (and a majority of voters do not have enough knowledge of game theory to understand why the current voting system is a problem)

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dtm4trix on 7/28/2010 5:12:09 AM , Rating: 2

I agree that it is OUR responsibility to vote our conscience but I fear no matter who we vote in, ie democrat, republican or independent the problem is and always will be the solution, what's the solutions to our problems? And no one is going to like the solutions. No politician is going to have the balls to stand up and say what he knows to be the right thing if it's not gonna be popular. Even if it will seriously help our country get out of mess we're in. Politicians by nature only tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear. Because what is the goal of every politician? The goal is to get re-elected of course. And how does a politician get re-elected? MONEY! So the politician is beholden to those who feed his/her re-election fund, so he shapes his views around that. I just wish that they would tell the people the truth. I don't know what the solution to our country's problems are, all I know is that the longer they wait to fix them the bigger of a sh!t sandwich we are all gonna have to eat. Cause things can't go on much longer as they are without serious repercussions.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dtm4trix on 7/28/2010 5:16:58 AM , Rating: 2

I agree that it is OUR responsibility to vote our conscience but I fear no matter who we vote in, ie democrat, republican or independent the problem is and always will be the solution, what's the solutions to our problems? And no one is going to like the solutions. No politician is going to have the balls to stand up and say what he knows to be the right thing if it's not gonna be popular. Even if it will seriously help our country get out of mess we're in. Politicians by nature only tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear. Because what is the goal of every politician? The goal is to get re-elected of course. And how does a politician get re-elected? MONEY! So the politician is beholden to those who feed his/her re-election campaign fund, so he shapes his views around that. I just wish that they would tell the people the truth. I don't know what the solution to our country's problems are, all I know is that the longer they wait to fix them the bigger of a sh!t sandwich we're all gonna have to eat. Cause things can't go on much longer as they are without serious repercussions.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By dtm4trix on 7/28/2010 5:18:28 AM , Rating: 2

posting bug......sheeesh

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By Reclaimer77 on 7/26/2010 11:37:41 AM , Rating: 1

The problem with voting independent is that it usually leads to Democrats winning. Because it splits the Republican vote. Independents, obviously, lean Right.

Voting Independent is just throwing your vote away. It might make you feel better, but come on, they have no shot at winning. We all know this.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By frobizzle on 7/26/2010 12:41:45 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Voting Independent is just throwing your vote away. It might make you feel better, but come on, they have no shot at winning. We all know this.

No, we don't all know this. You've been drinking way too much of the Kool-Aid that both parties have been handing out!

If you vote straight down a party line instead of for the individual, that is a wasted vote. If you cannot say what a certain person's standings are for any issue, that is a wasted vote. If after you step out of the voting booth, you cannot, at the very least, name every person you voted for, that is a wasted vote!

If your statement had the slightest bit of validity, then in 2000, Bush would never have been elected. It was partially due to the presence of Nadar that Gore lost many votes in Florida. Of course, the SCOTUS handing the election to Bush didn't help matters.

And if you really are so clueless as to think voting Independent is throwing away your vote, that was not the case in Minnesota when Jesse "the Governator" Ventura was elected as an Independent.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By fatedtodie on 7/26/2010 12:55:12 PM , Rating: 2

"Voting Independent is just throwing your vote away. It might make you feel better, but come on, they have no shot at winning. We all know this."

"No, we don't all know this. You've been drinking way too much of the Kool-Aid that both parties have been handing out!"

Actually He was right. We are a Representative Republic, not a Democracy. We vote for a representative and They vote for president. So if you vote against "the 2 parties" the 2 parties have most of the seats, so they still win.

Please know a bit more of what you are talking about before commenting next time.

Though if you get more independents into the house of reps and the senate MAYBE you will have a chance with a 3rd party.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By cmdrdredd on 7/26/2010 11:47:32 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
If your statement had the slightest bit of validity, then in 2000, Bush would never have been elected. It was partially due to the presence of Nadar that Gore lost many votes in Florida. Of course, the SCOTUS handing the election to Bush didn't help matters.

You know what lost the election for Gore? Gun rights...period. He wanted to go after guns harder than Clinton allowed during his presidency and he got what he deserved because of it.

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RE: Good reason to vote for independent

By Reclaimer77 on 7/27/2010 12:17:34 PM , Rating: 1

Sorry but I honestly can't have a debate about the details of voting and politics to someone who actually believes a Presidential election could be stolen or "handed" to someone. Really, you guys need to get over losing.

The poster under you outlined why I was right, so there isn't much else for me to say.

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DVD sales

By wallijonn on 7/26/2010 12:22:07 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
The MPAA continues to battle sluggish DVD sales and peer-to-peer piracy, while the group plans to focus more on pressuring ISPs into policing their users. ISPs continue to cooperate when approached with a court-ordered subpoena, but still feel uneasy disconnecting subscribers.

Obviously the MPAA, like the RIAA, hasn't gotten the memo that says that we're still in a depression. People are still losing their jobs and their houses. So, people are more careful with their discretionary funds - they aren't likely to buy every DVD that comes out at $20, every game that comes out at $60 or every CD that comes out at $17. They're more likely to rent the movie for $1, the game for $4 and listen to Top20 radio for free.

People have set their own price. In the case of Blue Ray movies I've noticed that the prices at my local Fry Electronics and Best Buy are now $25, on new releases, $30 a week later. Personally, I refuse to pay more than $20 for a Day-of-Release movie. Those who buy DVDs have probably seen the average price go up from $15 to $20. They probably will refuse to pay $20 for a DVD.

And that's why your DVD sales are sluggish. The RIAA had the same problem - they priced themselves out of a market and they had too much product.

I don't buy DVDs which have both Full Screen and Wide Screen movies on the same disc if they are over 90 minutes long as the visual quality usually goes down. And it really takes a lot for me to buy a Disney movie because it usually has over 20 minutes of commercials before the movie can start. Throw in multiple languages, multiple angles, different versions (Theatrical, Directors Cut), deleted scenes, music videos, actor and director sound tracks, how the movie was made, etc, and that is an awful lot to cram onto a disc - usually leading to visual degradation of the main title.

Given the choice between buying a Blue Ray movie with or without a Digital COpy, I'll take the one without because the Digital Copy usually has an expiration date on it. Why pay for something I can't use because the "license" has expired?

RE: DVD sales

By muhahaaha on 7/26/2010 12:51:43 PM , Rating: 3

I've personally noticed that the quality of DVDs has gone down substantially since the release of Blu-ray.

Coincidence? I doubt it.

A good quality DVD up-scaled to 1080p used to look almost the same as its Blu-ray equivalent.

But big media wants to shovel their overpriced next-gen crap down your throat.

And don't even get me started on the 3D stuff that they are trying to push. I saw "Despicable ME" in 3D and I felt it actually detracted from the movie. The depth of field was barely noticeable in most cases, or caused blurriness.

Strangely enough, the last few minutes of footage after the credits with the "minions" screwing around with a ladder and stuff actually *did* use the 3D effect pretty well. But it was like a proof of concept clip at the end of the movie.

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RE: DVD sales

By cmdrdredd on 7/26/2010 11:48:54 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
A good quality DVD up-scaled to 1080p used to look almost the same as its Blu-ray equivalent.

Wow I guess you're blind too then.

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RE: DVD sales

By cmdrdredd on 7/26/2010 11:48:56 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
A good quality DVD up-scaled to 1080p used to look almost the same as its Blu-ray equivalent.

Wow I guess you're blind too then.

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At least its obvious...

By Fracture on 7/26/2010 8:32:16 AM , Rating: 5

Who was in whose pocket. Its a shame that our politicians listen to money and not people.

RE: At least its obvious...

By The Raven on 7/26/2010 11:10:01 AM , Rating: 4

Its a shame that money is all most citizen care about too.

I guess they are representing us well.
Once we all realize the difference one can make not only at the polls, but at the register, and in our own homes can we make change that matters.

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Here's a clue

By marvdmartian on 7/26/2010 11:08:36 AM , Rating: 3

quote:
The MPAA continues to battle sluggish DVD sales

Gee, maybe that has more to do with the crappy movies that have been coming out in recent years?? Sorry, but regardless of the condition of the economy (which, I'm sure, has led to the decline of dvd sales), I refuse to spend my money on the boatload of swill that is coming out of Hollywood these days!

RE: Here's a clue

By Solandri on 7/26/2010 1:09:35 PM , Rating: 2

The drop in DVD sales was pretty much offset by a rise in theater ticket sales.

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/01/dvd-sale...

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Very funny

By saganhill on 7/26/2010 8:48:46 AM , Rating: 2

I think its very funny that these old farts who run an old industry are trying to understand a technology that could make them billions of dollars and are ignoring it. Rather than embrace the tech, they are ramrodding it. Sort of like the church did to Galillio for thinking the Earth was not the center of the universe.