Final Word from Tuesday, February 7, 2012
In An Empire of their Own, Neal Gabler tells how Nick Schenck of MGM offered inlate-1936 or early-1937 to put his entire studio at the disposal of Pres. Roosevelt formaking movies that promoted the president's views on national defense and foreignpolicy. In 2012, it's the governments of the world that are being put at the disposal ofHollywood. Instead of accepting that the internet means returning to a pre-Hollywoodperiod, where live performances or limited runs are the main moneymakersin entertainment, Hollywood wants to use ACTA, SOPA, PIPA and other forms oflegislation to defend their rights, to the detriment of the rights of others. Theft of anykind is bad, but who is to say that stealing from the moguls of Hollywood is worsethan stealing a little personal freedom from everyone else? The growing backlashagainst ACTA suggests that Hollywood's 100-year run is coming to an end.A companion piece to this (in Czech) can be found on Aktuálně.cz
Glossary of difficult words
at the disposal of - available to be used whenever or however one wishes;
limited run - a smaller number of performances or of a manufactured article than is typical in mass production;
to the detriment of - to the disadvantage or harm of;
mogul - an important or powerful person, esp. in the motion picture or media industry;
backlash - a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, esp. to a social or political development;
run - a continuous period of a particular situation or condition; a continuous series of performances.