too-short excerpt of a too-short conversation

[waider]

Keith Winstein, among other things the author of a six-line program to circumvent CSS, got to talk to Jack Valenti (MPAA head, now retired, I believe) and Rich Taylor (the MPAA's PR guy) for all of ten minutes, and then wrote up some excerpts of the conversation for The Tech. It is not, as BoingBoing bills it, Winstein running circles around Valenti. It's far better explained in Winstein's opening paragraphs:

When the MPAA called to ask if I wanted to talk with [Valenti] for ten minutes last week, I finally had my chance to take a shot at reaching some tiny mutual understanding.

Cory Doctorow's unhelpful commentary (titled "MIT makes Jack Valenti look like an idiot") is exactly the sort of stupidity that prevents mutual understanding from being reached, and Doctorow unfortunately engages in this childish "COPYRIGHT BAD!" stance every time there's a copyright-related issue in BoingBoing. Personally, I'm not in favour of the more draconian copyright measures, such as the DMCA, CSS, and the Broadcast Flag, particularly when they are effectively treating all consumers as criminals. To use Jack Valenti's own reasoning: by implementing something like the Broadcast Flag, you're legislating against the minority who wish to break the law. And "[y]ou can't have public policy that is aimed at 100,000 people when the other multi-multi-millions are also involved. You can't do it that way." I'd love to see more of Winstein's interview, and more to the point I'd like to actually see Valenti & co. sit down with a group of people like Winstein - intelligent, and seeking openness, but not the sort of bible-thumping sloganeer frequently found in the "Information Wants To Be Free!" ranks - and have them bash out these issues a bit more.