8. “[Cable will become] a huge parasite in
the marketplace, feeding and fattening
itself off of local television stations and
copyright owners of copyrighted
material. We do not like it because we
think it wrong and unfair.”
- Jack Valenti, MPAA Lobbyist
8
9. “[Some say] that the VCR is the greatest
friend that the American film producer
ever had. 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.”
- Jack Valenti
9
10. “These talking machines are going to ruin the
artistic development of music in this country.
When I was a boy…in front of every house in
the summer evenings, you would find young
people together singing the songs of the day
or old songs. Today you hear these infernal
machines going night and day. We will not
have a vocal chord left. The vocal chord will be
eliminated by a process of evolution, as was
the tail of man when he came from the ape.”
- John Philip Sousa
10
11. “I started doing the Red Sox games in 1951. We
used three cameras to cover the entire game…I
went to [owner] Tom Yawkey at the end of the
season and said, ‘I think we could use a fourth
camera from centerfield to show the balls and
strikes. I think it would be a great addition.’
“Yawkey surprised me. He didn’t want it. He said
the television coverage would become too good.
People would stay at home from the ballpark. We
didn’t get it.”
- Curt Gowdy, former Red Sox broadcaster
11
25. “There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist. That's a misconception writers
make all the time, that the record industry missed
this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do.
It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on
your dog to remove his kidney. What would you
do? We didn't know who to hire. I wouldn't be
able to recognize a good technology person —
anyone with a good bullshit story would have
gotten past me.”
- Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music
25
38. “Imagine you're a new parent at 30 years old and
you've just published a bestselling new novel.
Under the current system, if you lived to 70 years
old and your descendants all had children at the
age of 30, the copyright in your book – and thus
the proceeds – would provide for your children,
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-
great-grandchildren.
But what, I ask, about your great-great-great-
grandchildren?”
- Adrian Hon, “Eternal Copyright: a modest proposal”
38
42. “Here's a thought experiment: Everyone over age
12 when YouTube launched in 2005 is now able to
vote…
“Remix culture is the new Prohibition, with
massive media companies as the lone voices
calling for temperance. You can criminalize
commonplace activities from law-abiding people,
but eventually, something has to give.”
- Andy Baio, “No Copyright Intended”
42
