Jack Valenti Quotes

1921–2007 United States

Jack Joseph Valenti (5 September 1921 – 26 April 2007) was an influential American lobbyist and a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

United States
Activists
Businesspeople
Film producers
Non-fiction authors

Also known as: Valenti, Jack

Random Jack Valenti quote

26 quotes

In a political struggle, never get personal — else the dagger digs too deep.

I think politicians and movie actors and movie executives are similar in more ways than they’re different.

If what you own cannot be protected, you own nothing.

Testimony to the US House of Representatives (1982)

It’s a kind of reciprocity of affection by people who both recognize in a sense they’re in the same racket.

If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one.

If you design your own machine, you can't fuss at people, because you're one of just a few. How many Linux users are there?

I don’t know any other business that tells you not to go in and buy their product.

We want to tell American parents that they and they alone have total power to control every hour of television programming that comes into their home.

The entire rostrum of the rating program rests on the assumption of responsibility by parents.

The Voluntary Movie Rating System (2004)

A Plea For Keeping Alive the U.S. Film Industry’s Competitive Energy (1995)

A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.

The rating system isn't perfect but, in an imperfect world, it seems each year to match the expectations of those whom it is designed to serve — parents of America.

The Voluntary Movie Rating System (2004)

The only group in America that ought to be the final arbiters, the only group in America that deserves to scrutinize what we are doing, and then judge its worth... are parents.

No one today knows what is indecent.

I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president. For I know he lives and thinks and works to make sure that for all America and indeed, the growing body of the free world, the morning shall always come.

There is no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you. That's not fair use.

Engadget interview (2004)

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.

Testimony to the US House of Representatives (1982)

You've already got a DVD. It lasts forever. It never wears out. In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless.

Interview in Harvard Political Review (2002)

The Ninth Circuit Court decision was lucid, unambiguous, and consistent. The logic was clear and it said when you use copyrighted material on a video cassette recorder, it is an infringement of copyright.

Testimony to the US House of Representatives (1982)

Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law.

Interview in Harvard Political Review (2002)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Jack Valenti (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.