Chatting with Valenti

The Harvard Political Review sits down with the President of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti. Mr. Valenti is in fine form in this interview. Among other things, he informs us that there is no "fair use" in any law.

Behold Title 17, CHAPTER 1, Sec. 107, which is quaintly titled "Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use."

Yeah, I cheated and asked a lawyer when I could have asked google instead.

That isn't the only wild and crazy idea Mr. Valenti has though. We also learn that backups are totaly unnecessary. "In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless," said Valenti. Indeed! I bet the MPAA doesn't make backups of any of their digital files, like say Microsoft Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. That would be silly! They live forever! DVDs never get scratched or chewed up by the dog and if for some crazy reason something like that does happen you are morally obligated to go buy another copy. If you do anything else you are below pond scum in terms of morality. How dare you. How dare you!