Jack Valenti, Dead at 85 650
saforrest writes "Jack Valenti, a man whose influence in both Washington and Hollywood was profound, died today at age 85. He first became famous as special assistant to Lyndon Johnson: he can even be seen in the famous photo aboard Air Force One. In 1966, he quit this job to become president of the MPAA, from 1966 to 2004."
Frosty piss... (Score:4, Insightful)
Rot in hell, you son of a bitch.
Good (Score:2, Insightful)
C'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
It wasn't until he got into politics that he turned evil, and after all, didn't we forgive Darth Vader at the end?
rest in peace (Score:5, Insightful)
Rest in peace Jack.
(In heaven, there's no copyright law to violate. Everything is P2P. For reals!)
RIP Mr. Valenti (Score:2, Insightful)
mod parent up (Score:5, Insightful)
I know some people that were sued by the MPAA under his regime, who didn't have any pirated movies, and who were nearly ruined by legal expenses.
I don't care about angry MPAA fans and their mod points, he deserves a long line of people waiting to piss on his grave for the laws he and the RIAA have inflicted upon an unwilling majority of citizens in this country.
It's been ages since I've been to a movie because of him.
It's all anime for me now.
Not a dime to the MPAA-affiliated studios until the DMCA is shot down and buried for good.
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:C'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree (Score:5, Insightful)
Not all of us are pure evil, and Jack has to be applauded for moving the industry in the right direction. I only hope his successor is a forward-thinking visionary.
Hey, there, ladies and gents (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not asking for a moment of silence or anything. I'm just saying that the man deserves some dignity. He was misguided, at least, but he was a human being.
Re:Good (Score:2, Insightful)
He's dead now, we should feel bad.
Re:RIP Mr. Valenti (Score:5, Insightful)
His belief was that fair use should be outlawed because it interfered with corporate profits and you're praising him for that?
I understand it's crass to speak ill of the dead, but Valenti wasn't a terribly nice guy.
Even though (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps it is time to stop and think. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:RIP Mr. Valenti (Score:2, Insightful)
You could say the same thing about Hitler. Obviously Jack Valenti was nowhere near that level of evil, but he was still a moron who made the world a worse place. So fuck 'em. Good riddance.
I'm so relieved! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm glad we save our energy to tackle real problems like world hunger, war, government encroachment, etc...
Re:C'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod parent up, way up. First sane comment for this article. Sometimes
My condolences to his friends and family, if any manages to read these lines.
Re:C'mon (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's not be disrespectful... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh who am I kidding. He was an asshole.
Re:Perhaps it is time to stop and think. (Score:0, Insightful)
Grow up. Give the man some respect. He was a person.
Assholes.
Perhaps it's time for YOU to think? (Score:4, Insightful)
REALLY?
Will the textbooks five hundred years from now speak of the great 20th century tyrants and mention Hitler, Stalin, Castro and Jack "PG-13" Valenti?
How would that work? Hitler murdered his millions....Stalin murdered his tens of millions....Valenti was a tool of the MAFIAA....
Re:Odd thing to note (Score:5, Insightful)
Politics is personal. It's personal when someone can lose his house, car, etc. because a political lobby got copyright expanded in both scope and duration. It's personal when a cartel's desire for more profits makes criminal the free use of our computing equipment. Friend, there's not much more personal than having your freedoms taken away for the sake of someone else's business model.
So you're right - what I posted does not make me a great person. But Jack Valenti couldn't have made it much more personal if he tried.
Re:Perhaps it is time to stop and think. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:RIP Mr. Valenti (Score:1, Insightful)
Hitler had conviction too.
Re:Good (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I disagree (Score:1, Insightful)
When your asking yourself why some scene was on the unrated DVD but not the theatrical release, remember the ones with the final say on NC-17, R, or PG-13 ratings are the buyers or vice presidents of the major theater chains as clergy, but only the correct faiths, muslims and other adherants to false Gods need not apply, look on. Valenti is a miserable son of a bitch, and I hope there is a hell, because it would take Valenti to make it a place suitable for Cheney's arrival.
Re:C'mon (Score:4, Insightful)
Because that makes you worse a man than he was. Do you suppose that Valenti thought that he was not doing the right thing? Celebrating his death makes you mean, and small, and unworthy of the freedoms you purport to advocate. This death will do nothing to advance the cause of freedom; celebrating it is petty and pointless.
Perhaps you should spend some time learning to be a human being, before you leave high school.
Valenti's family deserves simple courtesy (Score:3, Insightful)
Speaking to those of you who have expressed distasteful feelings here, try to remember that there is such a thing as "winning gracefully," "being a good sport" or whatever you wish to call it.
I don't like Valenti on the balance. He did some good things, but his last actions in life were, in my opinion, bad. This isn't the time to debate them.
One of the great measures of a person throughout our history is how they treat their fallen enemies. Take care how you treat yours now. Don't debase yourself, the community or "the cause" with your immature comments.
Re:Perhaps it is time to stop and think. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:C'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think that's why people are dancing, then you are the one who needs to grow up. Piss on that bastard and more generally on what he represented --- that if you have enough money you can buy the laws in our "democracy". May he roast in hell.
Re:No, you're the ass-hat (Score:1, Insightful)
No one stabbed this douche in the face for 85 years, I'd say that was a good long life.
A life with which to propagate evil and murder countless innocent civilians from 30,000ft during the second world war.
To devalue your rights and the very constitution upon which your country was founded.
To rape the living shit out of you whenever you buy or watch a movie.
Understand? Nah you wouldn't.
Re:mod parent up (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll go along with SilentChris' incredulity. I don't remember any fans of the MPAA on slashdot, ever, at least since the DeCSS deal, and even then, the general mood against MPAA was chilly before that.
That doesn't mean the fans don't exist, but I'd think that they would be an insignificant minority. As such, they wouldn't have enough mod points to do anything about the seemingly legions of MPAA anti-fans that are on slashdot.
Re:RIP Mr. Valenti (Score:1, Insightful)
To put a spin on the old cliche: all that is required for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
(Of course, "evil" is a very strong word, but I sincerely believe that many people who have had "conviction" have done more harm than good. A sibling post played the Godwin card, but there are many less obvious examples.)
hit the nail on the head (Score:1, Insightful)
Exactly, and it mirrors to a larger extent where a portion of society is headed -- to the looney sections of the extremes; bored and stupid looking for a "problem" to solve.
Everything becomes "evil", the same kind of "evil" as genocide, etc.
Now you can no longer define what evil really is.
Murder is no longer of consequence because "we can't watch our entertainment".
Everything you want to do becomes a "right", as in a "constitutional right".
Now you can no longer define what a right is.
Your right to enjoy a DVD is now more/as important than my right to life.
Your right not to be offended is now more/as important than my right to free speech.
Have we become so bored / stupid that we must take these problems and fill them with such vile rhetoric so that we can placate our egos when we "solve" them?
Stop it, damn it, just stop.
Gee, can Slashdot withstand this? (Score:2, Insightful)
He did his duty at the time. (Score:4, Insightful)
he was at one time a valuable member of the human race, and flew 51 combat missions as the pilot of a B-25 during WWII.
He did his duty and that is admirable, but his record for oppressing others afterwards leads me to believe that his choice of sides was an accident of birth. Good and evil involve more than bravery and sacrifice.
Re:C'mon (Score:3, Insightful)
Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:4, Insightful)
But now there are suggestions of celebrating a person's DEATH, and desecrating his grave, just because he didn't want you to watch some movies for free. Now, I'm a big advocate of copyright reform--I even donate to the EFF--but to show such hatred that you're happy about the end of a human life? Just because you disagree with him about copyright law? Wow.
Just, wow. Now there's the
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's because he participated in the wholesale theft of consumer rights that people are mad at him.
Re:Good ?? (Score:3, Insightful)
The guy is dead. No need to be disrespectful of a dead guy. Don't send flowers, that's fine. But no need to piss yourself over it.
just my opinion, feel free to disagree.. it's your right. Someone out there probably liked the guy..
Re:Disgusting (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate to break it to you, but copyright is a free speech issue, and speech is pretty damn important. What he did at the MPAA was no better than advocating any other form of censorship. Should we be sad about the deaths of book-burners too?
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:5, Insightful)
Again, the point is that I disagree with him, but I certainly don't think the issues at stake are serious enough to CELEBRATE HIS DEATH over.
The lack of compassion and respect for human life some people are showing here scares me far more than any lack of compassion for consumer rights the MPAA has shown. Hell, the closest thing I can think of is when one of the RIAA's targets died, and they went after their family. Even they called that off after public uproar.
And even if they did want all copyright infringers dead, that's no reason to emulate such behavior.
I respect fair use and consumer rights, but I respect human life even more.
Now I remember why commenting on
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:3, Insightful)
He worked to undermine their rights (and succeeded) - why should they consider him anything other than vermin?
I have not won anything but hope. (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking to those of you who have expressed distasteful feelings here, try to remember that there is such a thing as "winning gracefully," "being a good sport" or whatever you wish to call it.
The most disrespectful sentiment is that his death is some sort of victory. It's not because the bad policies and laws he fostered and believed in are still here. His passing brings some hope of change and that is what we celebrate.
This isn't the time to debate them [unAmerican laws].
On the contrary, now is the perfect time to reflect on the man and his beliefs and what he accomplished. What better time will there ever be?
He believed in digital restrictions until at least 2004 [mit.edu] and probably went to his grave without understanding the real social cost of such control. To this day, I'm forced to chose between digital freedom and participation in popular culture. There is no middle ground because people like him considered you and me an insignificant minority who should use other options. Rights don't work like that. You can't violate people's rights because few people would bother to exercise them. While many of the things he said have been repudiated for 20 years, the logic he used never changed and he continued to say things we all hate. Those things hurt all of us every day.
The passing of generations is often the only way real change happens. Mr. Valenti was a product of a different time. His loyalties reflect those times but his intransigence is timeless. The run away success of the VCR was helpful to those he professed loyalty toward, and his opposition was harmful to them. It is surprising that he never learned the lesson. We can all feel sad for his family but we can also look at the world as a place that's a little less hostile.
Re:Frosty piss... (Score:2, Insightful)
I think what you meant to say is 'people are broken'. Which as a general statement seems to be true.
Re:Valenti's family deserves simple courtesy (Score:5, Insightful)
But that having been said, we're not talking about a "fallen enemy." He never lost. Valenti pretty much won the vision that he had. And that vision included heavy lobbying for the eggregious provisions of the DMCA, which to this day put people in jail for things that otherwise are defined as their right to do. Leaders still lionize him.
He instituted the hollywood ratings system, true, but he also ensured that the body was the most secrative and uncontestable organization inside the US. He also ensured that the people within that body followed his viewpoint about the world, and that it basically carried the weight of law, and as such became the most censurious organization in America. One could argue that, more than any other single individual, he's the reason why you can blow someone's head off in an R rated movie, but you can't show a woman touching herself through her clothes... Why violence is A.O.K. but physical intimacy is just wrong.
"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." When asked about using 4 second clips in a home movie project, he replied "There's no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you."
And people really do go to jail over this stuff. We're talking about someone whose paranoia and lack of knowledge led to unbased responses which are now routinely taking chunks of people's lives away. And even before he was responsible for the death of real security research in the US, he was already the father of modern censorship here. Let's not forget his help in selling the Vietnam War to the population.
This is the perfect time to debate his actions. This is the only time to debate his actions. What is the measure of a man? Here was a man who repeatedly prioritized business over freedom. And while he may have had his own reasons for doing so, this is not the sort of thing we should be pointing to our children and saying "be like that."
There is, by and large, no such thing as evil people. Jack was not an evil person. But he did many, many bad things with the combination of misdirected intentions and personal charisma. And now, with the US forcing other countries to synchronize with our draconian copyright laws, his legacy will belong to the world too. This is the perfect time to acknowledge that good people do bad things, and frequently the people whom you would define as the best people have the power to do the worst things. Also, this is the perfect time to reflect upon how our modern culture is owned by large corporations in a similar fashion to how midevil culture was owned by the church. If we're to prevent another mickey mouse copyright extension, [wikipedia.org] now would be the time to harden our resolve.
One may complain that we demonize the man because he took away something as trivial as movies. This is not true. We demonize the man because, for something as trivial as movies, he was willing to take away our freedom.
Re:An important reminder... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a problem, because in a lot of these people's minds there is no moral difference between the two systems. In other words, they live by the patterns they learned in the dictatorship, while enjoying the benefits of a democracy. Thing is, this doesn't really work, because they don't understand the fundamental issues of living in a democracy, like making the leadership accountable. That is the duty of everyone that lives in a democracy. This is a price we have to pay for enjoying the benefits of democracy. It is not a convenient thing to do, to carefully evaluate and then elect the best candidate and if he messes up, hold him accountable.
That was the theoretical part, but it has very real consequences and it is a very real problem. The people who spent most of their lives in a dictatorship, combined with a democrafically aging society makes a very bad match for democracy. Most of these people still evaluate parties based on who will give them the most gifts, who appellates more on the 'politics' of their youth, which was a dictatorship. They aren't troubled if some politician (dare I say prime minister) acts like as if he's still back in that dictatorship. It is the "we'll throw you some bones, just don't question the leaders" philosophy of a dictatorship. I'm sick of the way it permiates into and poisons a would be democracy through the minds of people who have suffered in the previous system.
The future is more hopeful though. The youth who didn't live in that system rejects those ideas with a big majority. The age line which divides the younger people and the more democratic parties from the old people and the ex state party is going up. Normal thinking is slowly spreading as people are born who were not poisoned by a regime.
This might not be too closely related to the MPAA, but should tell you something about the power of the mindset and it's effects.
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, it's not as bad as murder, rape, etc., but taking significant steps towards destroying the whole system of "art" of every kind is a pretty damed-able offense, which easily overrides all else. I mean, we're not talking about murdering someone, just glad to see one going away, who made his money in the most cynical and destructive way possible.
Re:mod parent up (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:3, Insightful)
Your rights haven't been breached by him. what the law allows has changed. It happens all the time and some people are on the losing end.
Worse (Score:1, Insightful)
Every DVD ever published. No region code for heaven. :-)
RIP Mr Valenti. May you make it though because you tried to do good.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Now there's the Slashdot I know and love! (Score:5, Insightful)
Your stance, on the other hand, is patently sociopathic (and that's *not* hyperbolic vitriol, unlike your abject comparison of dictators and mass murderers). Just because his actions were entirely within the rules of the system, that does not mean his actions or his character are beyond reproach.
Re:C'mon (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, for fucks' sake. The guy was a complete dick, but he is FAR from the worst that humanity has seen, as one might tend to beleive by the reactions shown here. This is not April 1945. And please, before you turn this into another "freedom of the masses" discussion, i'll repeat: all the guy did was restricting the way you're able to see movies. Read your local newspaper and check for yourself if there aren't bigger evils in this world.
Re:C'mon (Score:5, Insightful)
Valenti was a dinosaur of protectionism who worked tirelessly to hold the country back in the pre-internet era, seeking to do with legal means what could not be done with technical means. Instead of encouraging Hollywood to embrace new technologies and develop new business models incorporating them he pushed to outlaw them - trying to make the vcr illegal with his boston strangler quote is one example of just how far he was willing to go to distort the truth to repress technology. Regardless of one's beliefs about copyright and culture, he was no friend to nerds.
The best thing that can be said about his passing is that if we are lucky, his death will mark the end of the era of the copyright dinosaurs and the beginning of one in which creative artists are directly compensated and society stops paying enormous taxes to distributors whom have set themselves of up as tolltakers without providing any significant value in return.
Re:I disagree (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure that my anti-censorship views are more extreme than yours, but what people do in the privacy of their own home with the products they have purchased is their own business and hollywood should have no say in it - technicalities of copyright law not withstanding.
Not everyone qualifies as a Gentleman (Score:3, Insightful)
I know this man wasn't exactly our mascot, but can we please not celebrate the death of another human being? I'm not asking for a moment of silence or anything. I'm just saying that the man deserves some dignity. He was misguided, at least, but he was a human being.
I'm sorry if this comes as a surprise to you, but many of us on Slashdot are assholes, and honest enough to admit it to ourselves. Furthermore, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes, there is a time and place for everything. I trust no-one here would disturb the mourners at the funeral, but for geeks everywhere, the end of his life merits at least a sigh of relief, and Slashdot is as ideal a forum for such as may be found.
Yes, a human being is dead. He doubtless had personal friends and family, and I feel some pity for the sense of loss they now experience. Losing someone is never easy. On the other hand, I never encountered the man in person. Instead, I encounter the DMCA he championed, the copyright extensions he supported, and the diminishing recognition of the "fair use" he disbelieved in. For those who interacted him as human being, feel free to mourn. For those who love humanity for its own sake, his life was long and rich, and with less to mourn in its ending than thousands who die each day across the face of the world. But for those of us who have only interacted with his legacy as a tool of corporate power, some may choose to celebrate, for having outlived the man, we have a better hope of outliving his ideas.
On the other hand, his ideas are thriving, so there's not all that much to celebrate. Ding, dong, the witch is dead... now, get back to work . There's still a DMCA.