By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

Joint Statement from AFM, AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, SAG and Teamsters On PROTECT IP Act

Posted Thursday, May 12th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2011

Los Angeles – American Federation of Musicians (AFM), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and International Brotherhood of Teamsters today released the following statement:

“We commend Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA), and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), for introducing the PROTECT IP Act today. This legislation will give U.S law enforcement agencies much needed and far more effective tools to fight the growth of illegal international rogue websites and foreign profiteers who directly attack our members’ livelihoods by knowingly trafficking in stolen content.

“As the Guilds and Unions that represent 400,000 creators, performers and craftspeople who create the  multitude of diverse films, television programs and sound recordings that are enjoyed by billions of people   around the world, we unequivocally support this bill which, by providing protection for our members’ work, clearly shows  that our government  will not condone or permit the wholesale looting of the American economy and American creativity and ingenuity – regardless of how that looting is disguised on the Internet to fool the American consumer.

“The industry in which our members work employs hundreds of thousands of people directly and millions more in related large and small businesses that support the creation of films, television programs and sound recordings.  Rogue websites, which are run by foreign profiteers who play absolutely no role in financing or creating the content they so casually steal, rob our members of the ability to make a living, deplete earnings that would otherwise fund their pension and health plans, and threaten the ability of our industry to provide jobs now and in the future.

“We thank Chairman Leahy and the cosponsors of the PROTECT IP Act for understanding the true nature of this crime and for their consistent advocacy for protecting American content, particularly in the face of unreasoned and irrational claims that attempt to equate the protection of American films, television programs and sound recordings from digital thieves with actions taken by despotic regimes to quell and censor political dissent.  Far from threatening free speech rights, this legislation clearly and undeniably protects the creators of speech by combating its theft.

“We look forward to working with Chairman Leahy, the cosponsors of the bill, the members of the Judiciary Committee and their counterparts on the House Judiciary Committee to move the strongest and most effective legislation possible to enactment.”

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One Response to “Joint Statement from AFM, AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, SAG and Teamsters On PROTECT IP Act”

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon