RIAA CEO Backs John McCain
Written by Ernesto on November 04, 2008November 4, 2008, election day in the United States. As votes are cast right across America to determine who will become the 44th president, we take a look at where the sympathies of some of the key anti-piracy and filesharing figures lie, with a particular interest in RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol, who is a keen John McCain supporter.
Bainwol’s support for McCain doesn’t come as a surprise when you look at his career history. For more than a decade he worked for the Republican Party, putting his lobbyist skills to work. In 1987, Bainwol was the campaign manager of Republican Connie Mack’s successful senator campaign.
That was only the start of his Republican career. A year later, Bainwol was appointed Chief of Staff to Mary Bono, who was one of the biggest supporters of the (Sonny Bono) Copyright Term Extension Act. Mary Bono later married the son of Connie Mack. Both are still are active Republicans, and received generous donations from Bainwol recently.
They were not the only ones Bainwol donated to. OpenSecrets reveals that he has also supported John McCain to the tune of $2300, the maximum amount he is allowed to donate. MPAA CEO Dan Glickman, on the other hand, has more sympathy for the Democrats, as he donated $5000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign.
While the RIAA CEO is supporting McCain, most people from P2P companies support the Democratic candidate, Barrrack Obama. As P2P-blog points out, Limewire, Joost and Pando employees donated generously to Obama, and so did BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen. This makes sense, as Obama seems to have the most reasonable ideas when it comes to copyright, privacy and net-neutrality.
Earlier this year the US Pirate Party endorsed Obama. Andrew Norton, a spokesperson for the US Pirate Party told TorrentFreak at the time: “We stand solidly behind Mr. Obama, as he is the only candidate that seems to realize that personal privacy is a right, not a privilege, and believes that copyright is, as the constitution defines, for progress, rather than profit.”
Previously: ShowInsider Ranks Pirated TV-Shows
Next: Torrentz Faces Hostile Domain Takeover
65 Responses
Somehow I saw this coming…
Oh good to know about it
Mary Bono married Connie Mack? Was that a political marriage or what?
Well, at least we know who not to vote for. Obama is not guaranteed to be a whole lot better – or to care that much for that matter. In any case, although Obama may be sensible, a truly sensible president will not happen until there is a widespread sensible sentiment about copyright. A political movement from the bottom-up is what needs to happen.
Roze
http://www.10ch.org/
This will get more people to vote for Obama, only the support of the NAMBLA could be worse for McCain.
Pointless as McCain wont be elected. Current odds at teh bookies are 16:1 for Obama, the Kenyan Muslim come Afro-American Black Power Christian dude.
NAMBLA as in the North American Marlon Brando Lookalikse Association? ^^
Obama is the dawning of a new age of scrutiny on the capitalist pigs
http://www.h33t.com supporting change!
Wow, what a surprise. If Obama wins (and seriously, how can he fail now?), this world is one step closer to becoming a good place.
RIAA backs a loser. No one surprised.
Pity he didnt come out sooner saying this, just having a flag/icon saying the RIAA support mcCain would get Obama thousands of extra votes… no need to say anything else just:
RIAA loves McCain
Oops, I meant “just having a flag/icon on blogs and news sites/websites etc”
Well, Obama must be twice as evil (than McCain) because he got twice as much from another media distribution company.
“Obama is the dawning of a new age of scrutiny on the capitalist pigs”
Obama is an extreme capitalist, just like McCain.
@12
Which goes to show that you cannot really rely on both, except that Obama is slightly reliable. A president that file-sharers can rely on will not come until the idea that it should be legal becomes popular.
Roze
Obama slightly reliable? Did he take out your rubbish last night? cmon…..you, we don’t know jack shit about the real obama.
The RIAA is a bunch of old corporocrats who don’t understand technology… just like John McCain.
Come on guys, it’s about who’s going to take the new leadership in the IVth Reich !
Go McCain!
The people will be highly disappointed with Obama. I believe him along with a Dem controlled Congress will deal the killing blow to filesharing and free-speech in Amerika. He is about censoring the other side and also the fairness doctrine. Those things alone will have a damaging effect on the net and other media.
This is just adding one more to the many reasons to not want John McCain as President of the USA.
2600, are you crazy? Are you just pulling these absurd allegations from your ass? That’s what it sounds like.
@15
Forgive me, I meant “slightly MORE reliable than McCain.” That was a typo.
Roze
@ Grok I don’t let affiliations with media organizations dictate my vote. I usually look at the candidate’s own voting record. Their is a fundamental difference between voting “present” and voting “yes”. Besides both candidates voted for the FISA which bars them from any logical choice as someone who is for privacy.
http://iftheworldcouldvote.com/
The whole election is a total farce. Conspiracy theories or not, one can’t deny the fact that there are players that play the big game and so whoever wins we get the same result only with different sugarcoating and sweettalk.
So although RIAA’s preference is pretty much expected, in the end it’s not relevant…
“Earlier this year the US Pirate Party endorsed Obama. Andrew Norton, a spokesperson for the US Pirate Party told TorrentFreak at the time: “We stand solidly behind Mr. Obama, as he is the only candidate that seems to realize that personal privacy is a right, not a privilege, and believes that copyright is, as the constitution defines, for progress, rather than profit.”
LOL.
So Obama believes in personal privacy, yet he wants to take your hard-earned wages, take a larger chunk out than is already being taken in taxes, and “spread the wealth”. No thanks.
@13. Obama’s not an extreme capitalist. He’s a socialist. Get it right.
@Everyone – It really amazes me how, with all the problems in today’s world, you all focus on how file-sharing – and how a President who didn’t necessarily take donation money from a anti-piracy outfit – will make the world a “better place”. Grow up. Obama’s and his compatriot left-wing nutjobs are going to fuck this country up. Wait and see. Hell, his own running-mate Joe Biden has said that he doesn’t believe he’s ready to be President.
I agree, Joe. I agree.
They don’t seem too much different on tech issues according to this recent cnet article: http://news.cnet.com/Technology-voter-guide-2008—Analysis/2009-1040_3-6247428.html
And can someone explain why Obama voted for the FISA legislation just like Bush wanted him to if he’s sooo great. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/obama_supports_fisa_legislatio.html
@2600
Are you insinuating that I let media dictate my vote? If anything, the crap you just spouted about that being a killing blow to file-sharing and free speech. Would you care to back up your bullshit assertion, or are you just pulling it out of your ass… because you are?
Agreed in full. The election is a total farce. Each party simply gets one or two periods, then they switch roles just so that everyone thinks elections have any effect and they are still living in a democracy. The utter useless MILF was simply necessary because McCain’s support was still to strong. That clown made sure the skin/race factor would not be much of a concern. Even the KKK is happier with a black prez than a old geezer with a dizzy MILF as vice. After all if Obama sucks they can still JFK him and blame it on Osama.
that’s too bad. I was going to vote for mccain. I am headed to the polls in an hour, This riaa ceo just succeeded in losing his presidential candidate a vote.
http://www.raidz.net
The best thing about Obama winning is that we will no longer have a chimpanzee in charge.
If McCain were to win, it would be replacing a chimp with an orangutan.
As for how Obama thinks toward file-sharing, no one knows. But the President can’t really have an effect on it regardless — Congress is where all the payola from the RIAA and the MPAA is going.
The lobbyists spend millions to get their little ideas passed into doofus laws.
It’s the same in every country — those with the money get to piss on those without. Hardly an idea original to the U.S.
Corruption: It’s what’s for dinner!
@26
Culture is important. You may not realize it, but it dictates people’s wishes and desires, and what people do, both socially and otherwise. Culture is the thing that circumscribes life. Thus, it is important to have a good culture, in order to have good economy, politics, and pretty much everything else.
And what impacts culture more negatively than anything else? It is copyright.
Actually, I am quite unsure about how much culture will positively impact society as a whole (I am sure that the impact will be at least substantial), but I am very sure that the removal of copyright law from areas of non-profit activity will assuredly impact culture to be infinitely better.
Think about it, all of you. Do you not think that culture is one of the most important things to society? Then you should realize that copyright is very far-reaching in its effects. That is why copyright is an important issue, although I believe that few people realize it right now.
Roze
OMG, it happens but my hope is with Barrack Obama and Im happy that he understand something what P2P is… right?
“@13. Obama’s not an extreme capitalist. He’s a socialist. Get it right.”
Do you even know the meaning of the words? I don’t mean “OMGZ HELTHCAR, SOCIALZIM COMMIEISM TERRISM MUSLIMS GAYS MEXCICZNANS OH NOES!!!”.
Obama wants to continue the existence of the private ownership of the means of production (property). He is therefore a capitalist.
“If McCain were to win, it would be replacing a chimp with an orangutan.”
But with Obama, we a still replacing a chimp with an orangutan. The only difference is that orangutan is black and pretends not to be an orangutan. It’s still the same thing in the end.
I hear the KKK also supports McCain…
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Let’s be thankful… OBAMA IS PRESIDENT… GOOD JOB AMERICANS :)
W0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000T!!
:)
at 333 delegates right now, 63 beyond what’s necessary. I’m feelin’ good.
And, yeah baby, I’m a biracial female, and my black half is singing in the streets, even if my white half is sitting here commenting on blogs.
“Fire it Up”
Power to the people.
Obama 2008. Thank goodness.
OBAMA FTW!
In your face RIAA suck on DEEZ NUTZ.
net neutrality +1
and to cover there behinds ht evice president is buddies with mpaa
ya all angles covered there good to ocntrol it all now.
Wow. The pirate party endorses Obama and an RIAA CEO backs McCain. This is so ass-backward. I guess for the CEO it’s understandable since he was a republican, this election is pretty much win-win for him: Biden is one of the biggest supporters of the RIAA and MPAA in the senate:
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/16814
http://www.betanews.com/article/Where_does_Joe_Biden_stand_on_technology_issues/1219872202
Yea I saw this coming, not surprising that downloaders are supporting Obama, after all, he is da shizz
-Didi
RIAA CEO backed McCain. He must be feeling pretty silly now. Sillier than usual, anyway.
w00t! Obama won! EPIC FAIL of the RIAA, again!
Even though it doesn’t matter anymore from an election perspective… but from a historical record of how IDIOTIC people are in this election:
So let me get this straight… the RIAA hire a old Republican lobbiest who continues to support the Republicans… this is massive news against McCain. Dear God he gave McCain the max of $2,300; oh my GOD McCain is in his pocket. The RIAA owns McCain with that $2,300.
Unlike Joe Biden, who obviously isn’t in their pocket. Biden wasn’t one of only 4x Senators to get personal invite to a MPAA/RIAA/BSA celebration bash for the DMCA. Biden didn’t propose spending a BILLION dollars to monitor P2P networks for “illegal activity”. Biden also didn’t co-sponsor a RIAA bill restricting recording the audio from internet & satelite radio stations. Nor did he sponsor a bill to make it a FEDERAL FELONY (federal pound you in the ass felony) to trick devices into playing unauthorized content. And he also didn’t push the FEDERAL government to go after individuals on P2P networks.
Pull your head out of your asses because you are so blinded by your partisanship, your own man is a hundred fold worse in what you are complaining about.
@32: Roze : “That is why copyright is an important issue, although I believe that few people realize it right now.”
And let me guess, you’re that smart that you realised what most people haven’t?
Good to see Obama be the 44th president, but this is a very very bad article.
I informed you earlier about Joe Bidden. You better have checked his hostory and facts. Too bad you did not, TF.
Looks like the RIAA made another bad business decision.
We forget to address the underlying issue of all elections in the world, ESPECIALLY in the US: nearly all elected officials in the world are sociopaths. Not to get all Gattaca on everyone, but people elected to public office MUST be screened for the genetic cause of sociopathy (see the work of Dr. Robert Hare and Hervey Cleckley, etc.)
If a ‘human’ is found to be born without conscience, how can said individual rule over other human beings on a macroscopic scale objectively and responsibly?
Filesharing is clearly the next step in the universal (human) scope of cultural expansion and development, but it is less important by itself than the maintenance of civil liberties in general and the prevention of a growing fascist pathocracy in the US and beyond.
We have yet to see what will play out in America (Amerika?), so extend your kindness to all the purveyors of reason in regards to the potential (and likely) victims-to-be-had in Iran alongside the simple majority of file-sharers worldwide.
The only ‘hope’ I personally have to lend is that Obama is not assassinated before he decides whether or not to do the right thing… but if so then we had all hope not to end up with a warhawk like Biden as president. Even with the initial crisis of civil war potentially averted in the US, I wonder how long it will be before the county implodes in its own hubris and awful policy…
So keep on a-sharin’ those files!
Information is and always will be absolutely free!
elections never changed anything, else they’re always canceled, and that’s why lots of countries still don’t have it, obama will not be better than clinton, carter or deified kennedy, democrats exists only to make adjustements republicans politacally can’t
fuck the mafiaa fuck politicians fuck the worst than nazi u$a
this guy will be buried in a hole near the new W’s hole
Hezbollah backs Obama. ‘Nuff said.
what will be really funny is if obama does nothing or hurts file sharers..
then I will laugh at all of you idiots..
seriously, get a life, he doesnt give 2 shits about file sharers, and will ban it given the chance..
im a file sharer myself, but you people are ignorant.
@55
“Hezbolloh backs Obama.”
Um, no. Where’d you get that block of lies from? FAUX News?
@49
You have guessed wrong. It is just a far-reaching fact, that is almost invisible, yet I have stumbled across by accident. I am by no means smarter than everyone else in realizing this; rather, I guess I realized it by chance. I think it is important for me to tell others about it, since it is difficult to realize, since the fact is almost invisible. The fact is that copyright has a very big impact on culture, and thus society in general. Copyright has an impact on everything, not just people ability to “download stuff.”
Roze
@49
Also, I don’t see what my intelligence has to do with anything. I am stating a fact, and my intelligence has nothing to do with it. The fact is that copyright has a massive impact on culture, and that culture circumscribes all of society, so that copyright is a very important issue. The other fact is that few people realize this. Whether I am smarter than everyone else by realizing this has nothign to do with it.
Roze
This election sucked. Both candidates had points that I despised. McCain would have been friendly to the content industry. On the other hand, Obama is probably the most anti-gun president in the history of the USA and Americans can look forward to some of the most restrictive gun laws ever during his term in office.
no worries folks. Obama will not be assassinated
i have it on good authority that America will burn if they touch that man. this is not Friday, November 22, 1963
if they touch that man everyone in the world will catch a flight to the USA and kill a cop
Another great endorsement for McCain, almost as good as dick cheneys…
Too bad the Obamabots posting here suffer from selective logic disease and are not smart enough to the realize the fact that Joe Gaffe-O-Matic Biden has lead the charge against P2P and wants to make it a felony. ” April 16, 2008 3:30 PM PDT
Senator: Let’s monitor P2P for illegal files
Posted by Anne Broache Post a comment
* Share
o Digg
o Del.icio.us
o Reddit
o Facebook
o Google
o Newsvine
o Yahoo! Bookmarks
o Twitter
o Stumbleupon
* E-mail
* Print
WASHINGTON–A prominent Senate Democrat on Wednesday said federal and local police should use custom software to monitor peer-to-peer networks for illegal activity, and he wants to spend $1 billion in tax dollars to help make that happen.
Biden
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.)
(Credit: Biden.senate.gov)
At an afternoon Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about child exploitation on the Internet, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said he was under the impression it’s “pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation” simply by looking at file names. He urged use of those techniques by investigators to help nab the most egregious offenders”.
Do some research folks. Biden is the really dangerous one and he’s getting big donations to lead the charge.
Ya biden is a smart man but not when it comes to the internet still ill take him over corporate crony conservatives. Least he knows how to use a computer which is more then one can say for McCain n Palin.
Once the new round of fake terrorism commences you yanks are all going to be living in a police state anyway. Might as well get used to it.
1 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.