Hollywood mouthperson Dan ‘Jedi’ Glickman says his bosses, the owners of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), are, “fully committed to continuing working with the U.S. government to protect the rights of the U.S. motion picture industry in China”.

Phew! Now Dick and George W can rest easy, although Communist China’s leaders won’t be so happy.
Glickman (right) was recently replaced as the MPAA’s Pirate King by ex-Screen Actors Guild leader Bob Pisano. However, he’d continue to, “lead the motion picture industry’s voluntary rating system, the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) and its companion Advertising Administration,” said the MPAA.

That took care of the really important stuff. But Glickman was also to make statements affecting national governments on behalf of his masters, Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLLP; and Warner Bros.

With that in mind, his observations followed news that joint US president George W Bush wants China to explain what it’s doing to reduce the “piracy” of American movies, computer programs and other copyrighted material.

But just to make sure Dick Cheney, George W and China’s leaders clearly understand what’s expected of them, the “MPAA looks forward to a full and complete reply from the Chinese government and continued cooperation with the U.S. government, including USTR, in protecting the rights of and expanding access to foreign markets for the U.S. motion picture industry,” says Glickman.

International movie thief
In other MPAA news, although Glickman is tough on China as far as counterfeits, etc, are concerned, fair is fair and, “I commend the U.S. Department of Justice and the Chinese authorities for working together to ensure that the charges in this case fit the crimes,” he says.

He’s talking about the fact China has handed “known international movie thief” Randolph Hobson Guthrie III over to US authorities.

“Guthrie, 38, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Shanghai last July and was brought to the United States earlier this month after serving only part of a two year and six month prison sentence,” says the MPAA. “He was immediately arrested and placed into Federal custody upon his arrival to the U.S.”

The MPAA gives credit to joint efforts by ICE agents and Chinese law enforcement officials who ran ‘Operation Spring’ through which Guthrie was nabbed, but this time modestly forebore to mention its own role.

It had previously bragged that it, “provided assistance and background to U.S. and Chinese enforcement agencies in the investigation”.

And finally ….
The new Keystone Kop organization says Chasity McCarthy of Dallas, Texas, used iMesh to “illegally download four movies,” says KOIN News 6.

That’s particularly interesting given that iMesh, once an indie p2p application, is now a korporate kompany operating under the effective control of MPAA brother organization the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

“We talked to McCarthy on the phone before she decided to get a lawyer, and she says she doesn’t even own a computer - but her roommate does,” says the story, adding:

“MPAA says it doesn’t care. The evidence they have is that the phone line and Internet connection are under McCarthy’s name.”

Quite right too.

“It’s important for people to realize the consequences of piracy and they have to take a lot of personal responsibility in knowing who’s using their computers, who’s using their internet, their you know their internet connections at home,” KOIN News 6 has MPAA spokeswoman Kori Bernards saying.

Via p2pnet.net