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MPAA's Chris Dodd Will Be The Chair Of 'Free Speech Week'

Free Speech

from the stop-laughing dept

Tue, Jun 18th 2013 08:44am -

This seems a bit wacky. MPAA boss Chris Dodd has been named the chairperson of the “advisory council” for “free speech week” in 2013. Now, I’m assuming that most people have no clue what “Free Speech Week” is, but it’s supposed to be a “celebration” promoting the First Amendment. That’s why it strikes me as completely ridiculous that Dodd would be put in charge of it. While the MPAA was a major proponent of the First Amendment a few decades ago (back when there were efforts to try to censor movies — which saw the MPAA stepping in to create a self-censorship regime known as the movie rating system), Chris Dodd’s contribution to the MPAA has been to push SOPA, a bill whose main purpose was directly in contrast to the First Amendment and free speech by setting up a system for internet censorship. As Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe pointed out at the time:

The notice-and-termination procedure of Section 103(a) runs afoul of the “prior restraint” doctrine, because it delegates to a private party the power to suppress speech without prior notice and a judicial hearing. This provision of the bill would give complaining parties the power to stop online advertisers and credit card processors from doing business with a website, merely by filing a unilateral notice accusing the site of being “dedicated to theft of U.S. property” – even if no court has actually found any infringement. The immunity provisions in the bill create an overwhelming incentive for advertisers and payment processors to comply with such a request immediately upon receipt. The Supreme Court has made clear that “only a judicial determination in an adversary proceeding ensures the necessary sensitivity to freedom of expression [and] only a procedure requiring a judicial determination suffices to impose a valid final restraint.” Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 58 (1965). “[P]rior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.” Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 559 (1976).

It seems rather ironic that someone who was the main person behind a bill designed to take away free speech rights would then be put in charge of “free speech week.”

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Comments on “MPAA's Chris Dodd Will Be The Chair Of 'Free Speech Week'”

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122 Comments
Rapnel (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Schedule for rest of month:

They told everyone but not some people and they told everyone everything but not some things and these things were widely known except for a what’s not known and everyone approved everything over and over again but not some things and not every time. I think that covers everyone except someone somewhere. So.. they nailed it by tacking it by licking it and sticking it to the wall temporarily but temporarily permanent and with a transparency transparently obvious to everyone but not anyone.

Masnick = Frightened Little Girl says:

Re: What a joke

So the biggest group involved in censorship, from the movies you watch (watch This Movie Has Not Been Rated) to using Copyright as Censorship, is going to have their head boss be the spokesperson for Free Speech?!

America is the Land of Hypocrisy. What a joke.

You know who else loves censorship?? Mikey!! He’s blocking my IPs because he can’t stand how I call him out on his bullshit. He’s scared of debating me so he feels the need to play whac-a-mole.

Yet I’m still here, ready to debate him. What’s he so scared of? Hmm…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: What a joke

LOL! Ask Mikey yourself. He blocked my home IP, and then he blocked my phone IP. Yeah, like that’s going to work. Here I still am.

Just ask him yourself. Of course, he won’t give you an honest answer because he isn’t an honest person. But ask him.

He’s really this desperate to censor me now. It’s awesome!

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 What a joke

Your phone IP?

You mean mobile (3G/4G) address?

All carriers that I know of (and I know a few) will attribute “random” IP addresses from a pool. It is impossible for Mike to block you, unless he is blocking and entire pool of addresses.

You are lying you desperate sack of waste.

ltlw0lf (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:4 What a joke

EVERY device on The Internet has an IP. In most cases they are dynamically allocated as needed. So, blocking a particular phone is not really feasible.

Few devices on the Internet have public IPs. Many use RFC 1918 addresses and live behind firewalls and proxies. And many devices out there on mobile networks use APNs and gateways. Blocking the public IP address of these devices will block huge swaths of people.

Phones don’t usually have public IP addresses. Every mobile device I have from all four carriers have an IP address which is unaccessible from the internet (at least one carrier, I believe T-Mobile, uses 10.x.x.x for their network addresses but connections come from the 212.x.x.x network,) and blocking an IP address associated with a phone will likely result in a large population of users on that carrier being blocked.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:6 What a joke

Use a 1 pixel invisible image named to create a unique CID and use that for tracking LoL

There are other ways too, that don’t involve the IP address or could be used with the IP address, so you can block just one individual from one IP address once he is flagged assuming he keeps using the same CID..

This of course would just make him more sad

There are ways to track people anonymously they are not very robust but there are ways, besides AJ is tech illiterate so he will fall for it and will not understand how is that people are tracking him.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: What a joke

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, I do not believe Techdirt’s comment system contains IP blocking capabilities, if so how are you posting with a blocked IP?

In any event I feel Mike would be more than justified to do so, its not that he doesn’t want to talk to you (which he has an many occasions), its that he is sick of you irritating other people on his site, and so am I.

This is supposed to be a forum for intelligent discourse about technology and its associated legal issues, not a troll site. If you want to troll, head over to 4chan or a similar site, otherwise get lost.

Anonymous Coward says:

Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken, but Tribe’s comments were directed to the first iteration of the SOPA bill, and the subject matter of his comments was subsequently addressed in the Manager’s Amendment to the bill when the requirement for court intervention was added.

Your above commentary makes it sound as if Mr. Dodd refused to accept anything other that the original iteration. Moreover, you treat Mr. Tribe’s comments as if only they are a correct analysis of First Amendment law.

Anonymous Coward says:

Not free as in beer. Or anything else.

…Now, I’m assuming that most people have no clue what “Free Speech Week” is…

And the appointment of Chris Dodd as the chair of the Free Speech Week Advisory Council would certainly seem to indicate that most people, including the purveyors of Free Speech Week, have no clue what Chris Dodd is.

Somewhere, someone “in charge” is having a facepalm-moment. One hopes…

Baldaur Regis (profile) says:

Re: Not free as in beer. Or anything else.

Free Speech Week is put on by The Media Institute. Other members of the Advisory Council are:

Senator Gordon Smith, president and CEO, National Association of Broadcasters;
Michael Powell, president and CEO, National Cable & Telecommunications Association;
Caroline Little, president and CEO, Newspaper Association of America;
Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO, Clear Channel (last year?s chair of the FSW Advisory Council);
Cary Sherman, chairman and CEO, Recording Industry Association of America;
Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association;
Walter McCormick, president and CEO, USTelecom;
Mindy Hutchison, executive director, National Press Photographers Association.

They know exactly who Chris Dodd is. They know Dodd is the man who said:

“Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake,” Dodd told Fox News. “Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

after SOPA and PIPA were defeated.

Anonymous Coward says:

As Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe pointed out at the time:

The notice-and-termination procedure of Section 103(a) runs afoul of the ?prior restraint? doctrine, because it delegates to a private party the power to suppress speech without prior notice and a judicial hearing.

And the same argument has been made about the notice and takedown section of the DMCA, yet that argument has been shot down every time. Just because one person makes the argument doesn’t make it so, Mikey.

Of course, you’re just going to regurgitate what Tribe said and then run away when challenged on it because the fact is that you’re not capable of discussing the merits of it yourself. You run away from debate because you don’t have the actual goods to debate me with.

And you know it.

Bawk!! Cluck!! Go ahead and try your hardest to block my IPs and censor me, Mike. Nothing makes you look sadder than having to censor me because you can’t stand that I point out how stupid you are.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

Yep, Mikey is desperately blocking my IP addresses now. Mr. “I Hate Censorship and Anyone Who Plays Whac-A-Mole is Stupid” is censoring me and playing whac-a-mole.

Yep, that’s how desperate Mike is for me to stop reminding everyone that he’s too scared to debate me.

Masnick = Two-Faced Censor says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

Simple. Proxies. I’m sure he’ll start blocking those, and then I’ll just more to another one and another one and another one.

I’m not going anywhere, Mikey. Why are you making yourself look like such a fool with this whac-a-mole??

Why are you censoring me? LOL! Scared much?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

No, he’s not trying to censor you, you have become a drag who not longer posts anything even tangentally remotely on topic.

All you do is derail, ad hom, and insult, and as you aren’t contributing to ANY form of discussion within the comments, your one on one beef with Mike is not appreciated.

I also doubt he’s actually blocking you and it’s most likely because you’re trying to spam links while posting about milk.

Masnick = Spineless Censor says:

Re: Re: Re:6 Re:

Of course he’s trying to censor me. You guys are too funny. All I do is remind him about how he runs away every time rather than defend any of the stupid shit he says. He can’t stand it. He won’t stand up to me because he can’t. I make him look like a fool every time. Somebody needs to bring this asshole down a notch, and I’m glad to do it. Bawk!!

RD says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

Posting in EVERY article “milk it! milk it! coward! pirate! bawk!” is considered having a conversation now? Lets be clear: you arent interested in having any kind of meaningful discussion. At all. You prove it with every post. You dont get to then turn around and try to take Mike and the site to task for something you yourself are unwilling to do.

I am going to keep posting this every time you roll out your bullshit lies.

Also, you have proven you deserve to be censored. If Mike found a way to block you off the entire site, many here would not shed a tear OR feel that is was in any way wrong for him to do so, simply because you only come here to be a disruption and are an attention whore.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

I wouldn’t believe anything Joe says, he’s a lawyer.

LOL! I’m not a lawyer. But the fact remains that Mikey is so desperate to censor me that he’s engaging in a useless game of whac-a-mole with IPs. Ask him yourself (just don’t expect an honest answer, since it’s Mikey after all).

You’ll see my snowflake shift as I move to a new proxy. There’s thousands of them. I can move around all day.

I’m not going anywhere, Mikey. And you know it. This bullshit only strengthens my resolve. And you know it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

Most honest people would actually consider that they were doing wrong if they were rightly removed for undue harrassment.

You however, labour under the delusion that you are owed discussion when you have no legitimate argument to address.

You refuse to face the undisputable fact that you’re wrong. In that regard, you are a coward.

Baldaur Regis (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Lawyer joke time!

From The Money Pit:

Walter: It’s a big house, we’ll divide it up! You stay in your half, I’ll stay in mine!

Anna: That is such a dumb idea. Sometimes it amazes me you ever passed the bar.

Walter: I’m sure it does, you’ve never passed a bar in you life.

Anna: You are so much less attractive when I’m sober.

Walter: Thank goodness it’s not that often.

Rapnel (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Free speech is NOT links to infringing content.

And yes, so shitty, that you’ll manipulate the entire premise to make it as difficult as possible for as much money as possible to access when all I have to do is ask and I can get it for free. Friends in need are friends in deed.

Broken law should be broken.

Broken business plan should break.

RD says:

Re: Free speech is NOT links to infringing content.

“Free speech is NOT links to infringing content.

That’s where you pirates go wrong. Copyright is in that sense a deliberately created area of limited speech. — But SOUNDLY based on common law that someone else’s $100M movie is NOT in any sense yours.”

Thats right you stupid fucking pirates! Pointing to where something actually resides is THEFT and ILLEGAL and WRONG!! How DARE you actually talk about someone else’s property, or point out ALL the places it exists online! THIEF! STEALER! IMMORAL!! You and your factual information! You and those EVIL THIEVES that make the phone book should be SHOT! YOU ARE TELLING PEOPLE WHERE STUFF IS!! HOW DARE YOU!! HOW CAN YOU JUST TAKE SOMEONE’S PROPERTY LIKE THAT BY POINTING OUT FACTUALLY WHERE IT RESIDES??? DO YOU HAVE NO MORALS?? THIEF!

Milton Freewater says:

Re: Re: Free speech is NOT links to infringing content.

“Re: Free speech is NOT links to infringing content.”

Of course it is.

Free speech means that the government cannot define content as infringing as an excuse to punish us for accessing it.

Free speech has nothing to do with content creators trying to stop other people from plagarizing and unfairly redistributing their work. But that’s apples and oranges.

50 psycho posts per day on TechDirt do not make your same old BS overreach one bit more legitimate. You will always be wrong, and people who agree with you will always be a bigger threat to content creators and users than “piracy.”

out_of_the_blue says:

NOR is stopping the transfer of MONEY a limit on free speech.

Tribe makes clear the COMMERCIAL aspects — which are widely held to be regulable, but don’t ask me for a cite — “the power to stop online advertisers and credit card processors from doing business with a website,”

That puts it into the commercial realm, NOT a limitation on persons. (Corporations aren’t persons, besides that it’s still not their speech which is stopped, but money transfers.)

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