MPAA Tech Officer Paul Brigner Switches Sides In Internet Fight | Hacker News Reader

MPAA Tech Officer Paul Brigner Switches Sides In Internet Fight

m.deadline.com

67 pointsrkudeshi8 comments

The ironic thing is, if any legislator who supported SOPA was exposed to the complexities and realities of copyright/IP legislation as this guy was, I'm sure SOPA would have never seen the light of day. Sadly, like most legislation that our elected officials pass through, their understanding of complex issues are never more than what their (unelected) staff has debriefed them on, and what (unelected) lobbying organizations pay them to believe. I'd love to read the internal MPAA memo concerning this.

From what I gathered from the article and the linked post on cnet. He was hired for side A and sided with A. Now he was hired for side B and sided with B. Am I missing something?

No, although other things being equal it seems more likely that someone would switch in that direction if their current personal convictions were aligned with B.

His posting to CNET is worth reading too: http://news.cnet.com/8618-31921_3-57404804.html?assetTypeId=...

He was hired for side A, at first sided with A. Then over time he became more educated to the whole situation and became more sided with B, and thusly has switched to side B.

In other words, he saw the bigger picture and (surprisingly!) realized that flawed legislation isn't the way to handle the situation as a whole.

I still remember reading about the Don Dodge/Microsoft/Google fiasco. Legacy PR based on top-down control of the message is fundamentally flawed.

Why does zoom not work on that site?

It's a poorly designed "mobile" site - not needed since their site works perfectly in mobile browsers anyway.

Try the "FULL SITE" link in the footer - takes you to a zoomable version.

"To be certain, copyright violations are a real problem, and on that I think we can all agree." Paul Brigner

I am unsure if the majority of HN would concede that point. Many comments have stated that it is a victimless crime, or you should only use SaaS, or make money through kickstarter etc. Hell, Paul Graham has stated anything copyable deserves no copyright.

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