Reply #19: If there is one issue where I distrust many of our own Dems, it's digital copyright [View All]

[Ignacio Upton]

Many of our party bigwigs are in bed with the RIAA (including, sadly, Conyers...look it up in the old Daily Kos threads) and take more money from them than the GOP does. The recently deceased Jack Valenti was head of the MPAA for nearly 40 years, and prior to that was an aide to LBJ. He believed that the VCR's record feature should be outlawed, and compared the VCR's potential effect on Hollywood to the Boston Strangler's effect on young women. Thankfully, the SCOTUS ruled against Valenti and the MPAA in 1984, creating a precedent for things like CD burning and ripping software, and mp3 players (FYI, the RIAA also tried to sue the maker of the first mp3 player in 1998, under the leadership of prominent Democratic donor Hilary Rosen. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them, citing the 1984 decision against the movie industry as precedent.)