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Comment by latexr | Hacker News Reader

> We strongly believe we’re on the right side of history here. Everyone except the music industry knows this

I don’t think higher-ups at the RIAA or MPAA are so naïve as to believe they’re doing the right thing in any situation. They just prefer money and power to being decent.

Wikipedia gives more weight to Mitch Glazier¹ being a lobbyist than RIAA’s CEO. It comes as no surprise that:

> He played a role in drafting the No Electronic Theft Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the Copyright Term Extension Act.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Glazier

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> I don’t think higher-ups at the RIAA or MPAA are so naïve as to believe they’re doing the right thing in any situation.

I learned last week when taking my kids to see the Mario Bros. movie that it's no longer MPAA, but now MPA, the Motion Picture Association. I saw it on the green preview cards before each coming attraction. It's a bit scary: they now see their toxic behavior not only afflicting America, but the entire world.

That's... been true for decades. The US has this peculiar level of international power where changes in its laws end up directly affecting the rest of the world.

They even pressure some countries like Spain to change their laws to follow MPA and RIAA desires. I recall around 2010-2011 in Spain politicians made law called "Sinde", surname of the person behind it, at the time it was published in some newspapers that it came to fruition after a meeting/conversations with some USA government members, in some media they even called it "Sinde Biden", yep that one .

I think that's a little harsh on RIAA/MPAA exexs. Their comfortable way of living gets validation from how enthusiastically property laws are enforced. That leaves plenty of room for them to believe they're doing the Right Thing™.

Even though, as an article of basic critical thinking, they certainly aren't.

Only if they define "the right thing" as "the thing that makes them the most money". And if they really believe that, then they're even worse people than I thought.

Pretty sure "the right thing" == "the thing that makes them the most money" is just known as "business" these days.

Only for some businesses (usually the really big ones, and the attitude is unusually prevalent in SV). Not "business" in general. And those businesses are being run by truly terrible people.

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