Former Sen. Chris Dodd Named MPAA Chief

By David Cravets
Wired | Article Link

Then-Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) looks over his farewell speech in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington in November 2010.

Christopher Dodd, the former five-term Democratic senator from Connecticut, was named Tuesday to head the Motion Picture Association of America.

Dodd, who just retired after declining to run for a sixth Senate term, replaces Bob Pisano, the lobbying group’s interim chief since April. Pisano has been warming the chair of the retiring Dan Glickman, also a former senator as well as U.S. agriculture secretary.

Dodd said piracy would be a chief concern.

“Protecting this great American export will be my highest priority,” he said in a statement.

He sat on the Foreign Relations Committee, headed the Banking Committee, and co-authored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Among other things, he attempted to filibuster the legislation that immunized telecom companies from lawsuits over the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

As head of the MPAA, he’s likely to be a little less friendly to the average netizen. The MPAA has lobbied hard for the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

It has pushed for the government to shutter websites suspected of hosting infringing material, and is responsible for using the American legal system to sue U.S.-based torrent search engines out of existence. A case against Canadian-based Isohunt is pending.

MPAA is also responsible for blocking distribution of RealNetworks’ DVD-copying software.