http://azoz.com/newsarchive/2008/11/transition.html

Obama Transition Will Keep RIAA, MPAA At a Distance

by George Ziemann -- November 12, 2008

As most of us are aware, the RIAA and MPAA are lobbying groups representing the recording and motion picture industries, respectively. Obama's Presidential Transition Team has announced its ethics rules, which say that lobbyists "are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied."

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute describes this as "the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history." There are five rules, which are profound in scope. The two most important ones in this context are in bold.

* Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
* Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
* If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
* If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
* A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.

What this means is that the RIAA and MPAA are locked out of any discussions about the copyright czar, intellectual property and any of the other things they are famous for misinforming the government about. They can't lobby during the transition, and are prohibited from working on any of those policies.

Another interesting aspect of this scenario is that both the RIAA and MPAA deliberately selected Republican lobbyists after Bush was elected. I expect a "changing of the guard" to happen there, too.

Being locked out of the policy development process has got to be making the RIAA's heads spin. If I'm reading the rules right, the door is going to be closed to them for an entire year. No editing copyright law in the middle of the night; no new industry-written bills.

Personally, I hope that someone in government finally figures out that helping "copyright owners" is not the same as helping the artists. I'm skeptical of course, but it could happen. Who'd have thought Obama would throw out all the lobbyists?

This seems like a major shake-up of the status quo, especially the RIAA status quo. Their puppet string has been cut.

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Related Content

Obama Transition Announces Rules for Lobbyists in Transition -- BNO News

The aching desire of his sycophantic worshippers to believe good things will come from Obama is in one way sort of cute, and in another way, kind of pathetic.

Now, for some real news that gets to the heart of the matter. Maybe this should be titled, "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same":

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama is barring lobbyists from participating in the transition that will help install his administration. He will still leave room on his team for the rich and powerful.

Top fundraisers and other well-connected supporters will serve in an advisory capacity before the Democrat takes office on Jan. 20.

Five of the 12 members of Obama's transition advisory board raised at least $50,000 for his presidential campaign, and eight contributed the maximum individual donation of $4,600. Other transition team members include a partner in a lobbying firm and two executives of financial companies whose employees were among his biggest donors.

"If an Obama administration is going to sell influence, these are the ones who have bought it,'' said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors stronger campaign-finance and lobbying laws...

***end quote

AND SO IT GOES

" The aching desire of his sycophantic worshippers to believe good things will come from Obama is in one way sort of cute, and in another way, kind of pathetic. "

The desperate desire of those that hate
him to find fault, regardless of what he
does, and to slap him before he even
takes office is NOT cute, it is definitely
pathetic.

He won.
Deal with it.

At least TRY to be part of a solution, not
part of the problem.

I am NOT going to get in a furious
debate about this with you or anyone
else. Don't you think the time to sling
hate is over with ?
Don't you think it is time to put all the
screaming hateful bullshit of the election
season deep in a dungeon and never let
is see the light of day ?

He IS the new President.

We can try to make this work, or do
our best to sabotage anything he tries
on behalf of 'Our Team' so that we
can selfishly point fingers, regardless
of who get damaged in the crossfire.

Not saying you or I must agree with
him, but at least try to make things
work .. for ALL americans.

BTW .. the 'Obama Worshippers' crap
should be beneath most of us here.
Most of us here have a brain and are
no longer moved by GOP-Speak.

Stop the fucking bullshit.

" BTW .. the 'Obama Worshippers' crap
should be beneath most of us here.
Most of us here have a brain and are
no longer moved by GOP-Speak. "

It clearly didn't influence anyone during
the election either.

Simplisticly labeling .. denigrating ..
Obama voters as 'Worshippers' etc ..
I hope you realize includes a little more
than HALF of the registerd voters in
the US.

I dare say that at least a few of those
voted for him for what they felt were
compelling policy reasons.

I guess that would make it OK to
label all McCain voters as racist
pukes .. right ? RIGHT ??

See how much sense that makes ?

I know dam well that out of the nearly
50 % of the country that voted for
McCain, there is a large portion that
did so because they BELIEVED it was
the right thing to do based on policy
reasons as well.

Stop working so fucking hard to keep
us divided and hating each other.
Try to work as fucking hard on working
together, as a team, as a part of
OUR FUCKING COUNTRY.

Not mine.
Not yours.

OURS

ALL of OUR USA.

//rant off.

time for meds.

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/11/or-else-we-didn.html

At least TRY to interpret this in the spirit
it is intended, not as an attack, but as
a fellow human being.

"The aching desire of his sycophantic worshippers..."

Uh... this was basically a press release, which appeared in almost every major news outlet today.

Fact -- the RIAA is a lobbying group.
Fact -- New rule. Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
Fact -- New Rule. If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

Conclusion -- The RIAA and MPAA are locked out of any discussions about the copyright czar, intellectual property and any of the other things they are famous for misinforming the government about.

Fact -- This is a significant change in the status quo.

"The aching desire of his sycophantic worshippers..."

...is not discussed. Nor are the farther-reaching implications as to the effect this will have on the oil industry, Wall St., the FCC, pharmaceuticals, health care or the price of tea in China. This was the "profound scope" which I did not elucidate upon.

The "strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules" section was a quite from someone who apparently knows of such things. I am assuming that this, too, is a fact.

This leads me to the conclusion that the "worship" referred to must be because I said "Obama's Transition Team." I didn't even offer an opinion of whether or not a total ban on lobbyists is necessarily a good idea, especially in the broader context of energy or the environment.

I'm talking about the RIAA, as always. This is bad for the RIAA, therefore good for music.

I also firmly believe that Obama was the best choice for president and will make wiser choices than anyone in the Republican Party is capable of of coming up with. And when he wears shades, he reminds me of Snoopy as Joe Cool. But I didn't say anything about that. Obama also uses a Mac, so as an Mac loyalist, I suppose I should fawn over that a little too.

Let's see... Having a black president means that maybe he won't be so willing to discard civil rights as carelessly as the Bush regime.

The other thing that impresses me about Obama is that after the expansion of executive powers under Bush & Cheney, he could walk in and say, "Okay. I'm the Decider now," and point all the wiretapping at the Republicans. After all, criticizing the president is unpatriotic, remember? If Obama played the game like the Republicans, half of Mississippi would be in Guantanamo by Feb. 1.

I cannot think of a single area in which Obama could possibly perform worse than George W. Bush or John McCain. He has the greater potential for improving America, restoring democracy and getting us out of Iraq.

But worship? I don't think so. Obama is looking to be relatively centrist. And look at him. A black guy from the south side of Chicago who wears a white shirt and tie to work every day. This is progressive? Liberals don't wear ties.

Of course, I wasn't going to talk about any of that.

"The aching desire of his sycophantic worshippers to believe good things will come from Obama is in one way sort of cute, and in another way, kind of pathetic."

autodidact, I have loved you for a long time (and still love you) despite our different political views.

ALMOST anything/anyone would be better for our nation and its' peoples freedoms
than BUSH. (EVEN if McCain had won I'd be in "celebration mode")

The election's over folks.

We divided ourselves into 2 "big factions" for (agreed too long a time) to facilitate the NEW government we are going to allow to affect us...

but geez,

let's get to FIXING things!

(NOW it is time to keep a CRITICAL eye on our NEW "overlords")

...those of us here at boycott/dmusic AGREE on too many non-political issues to be sidetracked any longer by our merely POLITICAL views.

"Uh... this was basically a press release, which appeared in almost every major news outlet today."

Uh, George...

I love you too! But, your reply to auto's statement is also not productive.

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EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN THE BOYCOTT-RIAA "IDEALS" PLEASE FORGET THE POLITICS OF THE RECENT ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

------------------

Things have been SLOW around here lately.

LET'S get BACK on MESSAGE!

(I hate election years. THIS election took 2 of our years away!)

In the MEANTIME, shit sites like MySpace and FaceBook (and even YouTube) stole our message/viewers/listeners. - we have a LOT of "catch-up" to play!)

The downturns in DMusic/Boycott participation happened markedly these past three election cycles (6 if you count the "in-between" presidential election years!!!)

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FOLKS,

Knock it OFF now!

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Get BACK to pushing for FAIRNESS in the music world for artists and fans!

STOP letting our ideologies get in the way!

(I appologize for letting MY own political ass show if you folk will do the same. lol. we ARE only human after all and can't help it sometimes.)

BUT TRY!

(I try.)

Ya, quit figthing. Or they win! And U know WHO I mean ... (all those big money corporate assholes that are taking advantage of the youth)--there will be no middle class- no more creativity--reminds me of a song... "sippin' away, slippin away"... Knock it off. You want to lose, win or endure a war? You need to put aside your personal BS & stick to the cause. Otherwise you will lose - this is a tactic the military used to break down people before they took them over. "fracture them" (set up infighting) We are on the internet ya know. You will NEVER be able to recrute or convince others of your mission. This kind of talk is veiled in violence, not love or creativity. I ask all those who paint, sing, write music-- what plane of existance are you on? Don't make those guys happy by being a rag. (ya they read this)

This wasn't a political article. Reading politics into it pissed me off.

" This wasn't a political article. Reading politics into it pissed me off. "

Precisely.

It was a needless attack, that benefitted
no one, and did nothing to advance the
topic. Sadly, I am afraid that will be a
common response every single time
PE Obama does anything that will
appear to be in a good direction.

If someone actually sees him walking
on water someone will just say
" See, he can't swim, can he ? "

Personally, I think this is a good start,
and hopefully, a precursor of things to
come from his administration.

Are we still having trouble staying on topic around here?

: -)