Jack Valenti’s memoirs detail his troubled battle to ban screener releases that in 2002 saw half of the 68 released wind up in the hands of pirates.
In his newly published memoirs, Jack Valenti, former long-running MPAA boss, calls his failed attempts to ban screener releases “…a sad piece of business.”
He grew angry in 2002 that over half of the 68 screener releases ended up in the hands of pirates and therefore moved to ban their release altogether in September of 2003.
Studio heads firmly agreed with his new policy but filmmakers immediately cried foul, noting that “…without screeners, smaller movies wouldn’t enjoy an equal playing field.” More than 100 filmmakers then signed an open letter to Valenti criticizing his new policy on October 10th, 2003, frustrating his efforts to close the piracy “loophole” and dealing him a rare setback in Hollywood.
“To say I was pained is to undershoot the mark,” Valenti acknowledges. “I was sick at heart.”
The case eventually ended up in Federal Court and a judged ruled in favor of filmmakers being allowed to distribute screener copies of their movies in order to get them much needed exposure.
“To me, the whole enterprise was a sad piece of business,” Valenti recalls about one of his rare defeats. “The only good news was that I was damn glad it was over. It was a bitch.”
I’m glad it’s over now too because screener releases are what makes The months of October thru January so exciting for the file-sharing community. Who can forget the Pirate Bay’s “Oscar Torrents?”
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Man that guy is old no wonder he has no idea in what direction to take the industry. Most of the current technology is beyond his ancient comprehension.
@Moutain Rgae
ROTFL….he actually died a few months back. They just finished publishing his memoirs though.
See….too old.
In that picture Jack looks like someone from the Sopranos to me.