Pro SOPA/PIPA Astroturf Group Creative America Restocks,Hires Former Democratic DHS/ICE Spokesperson
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120121/01515617498/creative-america-restocks-hires-former-dhsice-spokesperson.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
We've talked plenty of times about CreativeAmerica, the astroturf group
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111021/10564516449/creativeamerica-when-major-hollywood-studios-set-up-bogus-grassroots-campaigns.shtml that keeps pretending that it's a "grassroots" group. It was setup mainly to push for SOPA/PIPA in an attempt to pretend that "normal people" rather than just Hollywood fatcats supports SOPA/PIPA. Just one problem: it was so obviously run by Hollywood fatcats that no one ever took it seriously. It was slickly produced, was backed by the big studios, and all the big movie studios promoted it directly as well. Its executive director, Mike Nugent, came directly from Disney, where he was the company's Senior VP of anti-piracy. Meanwhile, its "communications director," Craig Hoffman came straight from... you guessed it... the MPAA. And before that he worked at Warner Bros. Grassroots!
Well, it seems they knew they were missing out on one key ingredient to prove just how "grassroots" they were... so they went over the law enforcement side of things, snapping up one Chris Ortman from Homeland Security.
http://www.potomacflacks.com/pf/2012/01/ortman-to-creative-america.html Yes, the same Homeland Security responsible for abusing copyright laws to illegally seize and censor websites for over a year under no legal basis.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/08225217010/breaking-news-feds-falsely-censor-popular-blog-over-year-deny-all-due-process-hide-all-details.shtml
Yes, that's right folks, the group that is pretending to be grassroots, but is really an astroturf organization -- which has bent over backwards to insist that SOPA/PIPA were not about censorship at all -- has hired someone from the very US government agency that has been using similar copyright laws to seize and censor websites. Perhaps his nickname is "grassroots"?
And the group wonders why actual artists aren't buying what they're selling. Perhaps rather than staffing it with former studio execs, MPAA lackeys and law enforcement censors... why not try actual content creators next time? Oh, perhaps it's because lots of actual content creators know that SOPA/PIPA are bad ideas.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/20581217426/andy-samberg-neil-gaiman-trent-reznor-aziz-ansari-adam-savage-more-tell-congress-dont-pass-pipa-sopa-our-names.shtml
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