Valenti on the clash between Hollywood and tech

I've begun a regular Q&A feature for Engadget, the Web's leading site for information about cool new gadgets such as handheld devices, cellphones, cameras, wireless gizmos, etc.

My first interview is with Jack Valenti, whose tenure as president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America ends tomorrow -- after 38 years. We talk about movies, technology and whether the new breed of digital gizmos threatens Hollywood. Excerpt:

I’ve talked to about 3,500 students at Harvard, Yale, NYU, Stanford and Duke -- eight universities in all. When I ask, how many of you believe that what you’re doing is wrong, morally and legally, most of their hands go up. But they rationalize it by saying, yes, it is a kind of stealing, but everybody else is doing it, and it costs too much to go to a movie. There’s a rationalization that goes on, but I am convinced if we keep putting this moral imperative before them and if the professors follow through on this, it will have an effect.

I'll post the entire interview with Valenti on this blog at a later date. And I take issue with many of his assumptions in my book, so I'll keep my powder dry until then.