Chairman of the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) who testified in a
deposition on the suit against
2600.com because of
DeCSS linking. You can get an idea of what he is like by reading the following exerpt from the
transcript. (Garbus is 2600's lawyer)
"Did you testify before Congress that the Fair Use Exception was not cut out by the DMCA," Garbus asked.
"Yes," Valenti assured him. "The concept of Fair Use is intact in the DMCA."
"Tell me how that is," Garbus urged him.
"Well, I don't know except that the concept is intact."
An apparently incredulous Garbus pressed the matter: "Do you agree that a person teaching in a classroom can take three, four, five minutes of a DVD and play it to his class?"
"If you mean can he de-encrypt it the answer is no, but he can get a DVD and fast forward to the three or five minutes he wants to play," Valenti noted.
"So if a librarian, for example, wants to snip two to three minutes from a DVD for a lecture, is she required to get a license from the DVD CCA or the MPAA to use those two or three minutes?"
"I can't answer the question," Valenti said.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know what the answer is."
"Do you understand the question?"
"Huh?"
"Do you understand the question?"
"Not really."