Utah AG publishes pro-SOPA op-ed with uncited quotations from MPAA promotional materials

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's recent op-ed in the Salt Lake City Tribune is full of quotes and paraphrases from promotional materials produced by the MPAA and execs from its member-companies in support of SOPA. This uncited quotation is the kind of thing that academics call cheating, and that the MPAA (incorrectly) calls "copyright theft."

“Congress can make a significant contribution to that effort with legislation to strengthen law enforcement tools. In the interests of American citizens and businesses, it is time for Congress to enact rogue sites legislation.”
The sentence above is copied from a pro-COICA column (bottom paragraph) written by Mike McCurry, co-chairman of the pro-copyright outfit Arts+Labs. At the time, McCurry’s piece was praised by pro-copyright lobby groups and in his writing McCurry also uses the previously mentioned sentence from the MPAA’s former president.
But there’s more. The column from McCurry, which is often quoted by the MPAA and affiliated groups such as FightOnlineTheft, displays more similarities with the article published by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

Perhaps he's just experiencing the ecstasy of influence.

‘Rogue’ Attorney General Spreads MPAA-Fed SOPA Propaganda

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MORE: christ what an asshole • Copyfight • corporatism • corruption • law • petard • pipa • plagiarism • sopa • utah

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That_Anonymous_Coward

It is so nice he has time to repeat propaganda rather than pursue real law, I guess with all of the money from putting polygamy on television he feels that they have an important stake in making sure no one fileshares episodes of an illegal practice happening in his state.
http://twitter.com/terrencehart Terry Hart

I don’t see “uncited quotations” on the MPAA’s page for types of content theft: http://mpaa.org/contentprotection/types-of-content-theft

What does that say about the strength of an argument when it relies on making things up?
- http://twitter.com/sqlrob Rob
  
  illegal public performance. Did he have a license to those quotes?
- pablohoney
  
  Hypocrisy, look it up.
http://twitter.com/letterror Erik van Blokland

As one of the designers of that “You wouldn’t steal a car” font, I’ve always been curious whether they actually licensed it.
- That_Anonymous_Coward
  
  You should look into that, it would be nice to add yet another example of them violating the law they hold so precious.
- First Last
  
  As if they would do a thing like that.
  http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-corruption-scandal-surrounds-anti-piracy-campaign-111201/?_
- http://twitter.com/nesnora nesnora
  
  Please, please look into this.
Finnagain

Can we have their websites shut down now?
zarray

Hooray, another embarrassment for our lovely state. We’re definitely catching up with Arizona now!
- StewieC
  
  Utard is already far ahead of Arizona in the stupid department.
  - zarray
    
    Stupid enough to pawn off the capital?
    http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/arizona-wants-buy-back-state-capitol-it-inexplicably-sold
    - StewieC
      
      Wow. It’s a good thing the Utard legislature mor_ons didn’t hear of this or they would have done the same thing.
sabik

Hmm, “rogue sites legislation”, that’s nicely ambiguous. Maybe we should use that phrase more often, “rogue legislation”.

rogue legislation

Has a certain ring to it, no?
AirPillo

Not that it exactly matters, but even the MPAA wouldn’t call an uncited quotation “theft” if it was quoted with permission from (or in this case perhaps “a command from”) the original writer.