The author can write well, but his main point is frankly dumb and reads like a plant from an industry pressure group.
He cites two main facts: that record company and movie industry conglomerates have lost profits, and that tech companies have gained profits. He then asserts that this is due to some sort of implied theft. That's completely asinine.
The posters below implying this is part of the Hollywood Smear campaign are quite possibly right.
> reads like a plant from an industry pressure group
A useful alternate headline could be: Think tank funded by pro-SOPA MPAA board members Viacom, Time Warner, Disney Corp., and News Corp. attacks Google for doing the right thing and opposing SOPA.
The Stop Online Piracy Act was an awful bit of Hollywood-backed anti-Internet legislation.
USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab receives funding from BET Networks (Viacom), Disney, Paramount Pictures (Viacom), Viacom itself, Warner Bros. (Time Warner), Fox Broadcasting (News Corp), according to its web site: http://www.annenberglab.com/about
Those companies are board members of the MPAA. It's true that the think tank lists other donors as well; the question is whether the non-MPAA donors account for any significant part of its budget.
It was a well-written article, but the talking points, as you say, could come from an MPAA blog post. It's a shame because there are important things to say about these topics, and the linked article could have done a good job of framing them. :(
"reads like a plant from an industry pressure group"
Maybe I'm a little biased because I read his first letter [1] and found it quite thoughtful, but do we really need to invoke anything so sinister? I agree with you that he is off base here, but can't we at least assume he is well-meaning and acting in good faith?
He cites two main facts: that record company and movie industry conglomerates have lost profits, and that tech companies have gained profits. He then asserts that this is due to some sort of implied theft. That's completely asinine.
The posters below implying this is part of the Hollywood Smear campaign are quite possibly right.