Quick quiz: a) who said this, b) when did s/he say it, and c) to what machine did it refer?

"Nothing of value is free. It is very easy, Mr. Chairman, to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else's property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled. That is what it is all about. Now, these machines are advertised for one purpose in life. Their only single mission, their primary mission is to copy coyrighted material that belongs to other people."

Give up? a) Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of America, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. b) 1982. c) The VCR.

Notice any similarites to the arguments the MPAA and others are using against technologies like P2P, and products like TiVo? Sure you do.

Another great quote from Valenti 20 years ago:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

Thank God that we listented to Jack Valenti back then, banned the VCR, and saved the entertainment industry. Otherwise…

Seriously, though, Valenti was wrong then, and he and his allies are wrong now. Movie studios eventually embraced home video, and now that accounts for a huge percentage of their profits. They took "piracy" and turned it into a new business model, and now they are richer than ever. If the studios and nets are unable to find a way to make a buck from digital technologies, they will die, and deservedly so. Valenti appears unable to learn from experience; let's hope the industry as a whole is smarter than that.