Editing Jack Valenti (section)

===MPAA===
In 1966, Valenti, at the insistence of [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] chief [[Lew Wasserman]] and with Johnson's consent, resigned his White House commission and became president of the [[Motion Picture Association of America]]. With Valenti's arrival in Hollywood, the pair were lifelong allies, and together orchestrated and controlled how Hollywood would conduct business for the next several decades.

[[William F. Patry]], a copyright attorney for the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton administration]], who observed Valenti firsthand says:

<blockquote>His personal passion and extreme comfort around politicians gave him credibility that others ... would lack. Mr Valenti was a consummate salesman, who like all great salesmen ... worked himself up into believing the truth of his clients' message. Those privileged to see Mr Valenti offstage – talking openly with his clients about what could or could not be achieved, and what artifice would or would not work – are aware that Mr Valenti's clients frequently disagreed with his advice and directed him to deliver a different message through a different artifice. [He] was a great actor working on the stage of Washington DC (and sometimes globally) on behalf of an industry that appreciated his craft, but that never let him forget that the message was theirs and not his.<ref name="Moralpanics">Patry, W. F.: ''Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars'', Oxford University Press, 2009. {{ISBN|0-19-538564-0}}.</ref></blockquote>

====Movie rating system====
In 1968, Valenti developed the [[MPAA film rating system]],<ref name="desques">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-2Y1AAAAIBAJ&pg=5106%2C7197294 |work=Deseret News |location=(Salt Lake City, Utah) |agency=(The Moviegoer) |title=Questionable ratings to gain patronge?|date=October 31, 1968|page=10A}}</ref> which initially comprised four distinct ratings: G, M, [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system|R]] and [[X-rated|X]]. The M rating was soon replaced by GP, and changed to PG in 1972. The X rating immediately proved troublesome, since it was not trademarked and therefore used freely by the pornographic film industry, with which it became most associated. Mainstream films such as ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'' and ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' were assumed by the public to be pornographic because they carried the X rating. In 1990, the trademarked "adults only" [[NC-17]] rating was introduced as a replacement for the non-trademarked X-rating. The PG-13 rating was added in 1984 to provide a greater range of distinction for audiences and was first proposed by [[Steven Spielberg]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/pg-13-20-how-indiana-remade-films-wbna5798549|title=PG-13 at 20: How 'Indiana' remade films|website=TODAY.com|date=August 23, 2004 }}</ref>

====Valenti on new technologies====
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Valenti became notorious for his flamboyant attacks on the [[Sony]] [[Betamax]] [[Videocassette recorder|Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)]], which the MPAA feared would devastate the film industry. He famously told a [[United States Congress|congressional]] panel in 1982, "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."<ref>[http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm Jack Valenti Testimony at 1982 House Hearing on Home Recording of Copyrighted Works]</ref> Despite Valenti's prediction, the [[home video]] market became a mainstay of film studio revenues throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

====Digital Millennium Copyright Act====
[[File:JackValenti19.JPG|left|thumb|Jack Valenti in 1991]]
In 1998, Valenti lobbied for the controversial [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]], arguing that [[copyright infringement]] via the Internet would severely damage the record and film industries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tech.mit.edu/V124/N20/ValentiIntervie.20f.html|title=Real Dialogue: The Tech interviews Jack Valenti - The Tech|website=tech.mit.edu|access-date=May 8, 2009|archive-date=February 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205114726/http://tech.mit.edu/V124/N20/ValentiIntervie.20f.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====2003 screener ban injunction====
In 2003, Valenti found himself at the center of the so-called [[screener (promotional)|screener]] debate, as the MPAA barred studios and many independent producers from sending screener copies of their films to critics and voters in various awards shows. Under mounting industry pressure and a court [[injunction]] ''[[Antidote Films|Antidote Int'l Films Inc]]. et al. v MPAA'' (November 2003), Valenti backed down in 2004, narrowly avoiding a massive and embarrassing [[antitrust]] lawsuit against the MPAA.

The Coalition of Independent Filmmakers' [[Jeff Levy-Hinte]], IFP/Los Angeles executive director Dawn Hudson and IFP/New York executive director Michelle Byrd said in a joint statement, "By obtaining a court order to force the MPAA to lift the screener ban last December, the Coalition enabled individual distributors to determine when and in what manner to distribute promotional screeners." It was viewed as Valenti's greatest professional loss.