Remember When The Government Told The Movie Studios What To Do?

Ok, so maybe I don’t remember it because it was about 50 years before I was born. But there was a time when the movie studios were afraid of the government, and not the other way around. The early crime films of the 20s and 30s (two of my favorites: the original Scarface and The Public Enemy) prompted some public groups and the GOVERNMENT to insist on the movie studios adhering to a certain Code because they were upset that the films were glorifying criminal activity instead of condemning it.

This is a far cry from the world we live in today, where the movie studios are now telling the government what to do. The shutdown of Megaupload being a prime example of this. The service, that although was used by pirates to share copyrighted content, was also used by other people for legitimate purposes. Also, the SOPA and PIPA bills that have been filling the news lately are also the product of movie studios’ hubris and belief that they get to make the laws.

So what happened? When did the government loose their balls claws and became the submissive in this relationship? Might it have something to do with the out of control lobbying and political contributing?

Leave a Reply

%d