The MPAA has made no bones about its tight relationship with Congress, and recent numbers reveal it’s paying handsomely to employ former Connecticut senator Chris Dodd. In tax files recently unearthed by TorrentFreak, Dodd was paid a total of $2.4 million for fiscal year 2011, including a $100,000 bonus. Dodd was previously believed to be making about $1.5 million a year, while his predecessor Robert Pisano’s salary was pegged at about $1.3 million. Though the MPAA is required to make tax filings public, 2012 data is not yet available. The organization itself took in $60.8 million in revenue, an increase from $49.6 million the year before.
Former senator Chris Dodd made $2.4 million as MPAA head in 2011
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
2011 was Dodd’s first year at the MPAA; more notably, it was also the year that saw the inception of extraordinarily unpopular anti-piracy bill SOPA. Dodd was instrumental in pushing SOPA — which was authored by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) — and was up-front about paying politicians for their support. After Smith tabled SOPA, Dodd was quoted by Fox News threatening a backlash against Obama, who opposed the bill. “Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,” he said. Dodd himself left the Senate for the MPAA in 2011 after 30 years in office.
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