This week we’re introducing a new regular feature: the Engadget Interview. Every week J.D. Lasica will speak with someone who is helping shape this crazy world of gadgets and technology that we’re all so obsessed with. We’re inaugurating it with Jack Valenti, outgoing president of the Motion Picture Association of America, who spoke to Lasica about movies, technology and whether the new breed of digital gizmos threatens Hollywood. His last day at the MPAA’s helm is Tuesday. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

You have personally come to personify the MPAA—

Well, I’ve been here 38 years, so if you last that long, you become an institution.

Some people have portrayed you as anti-technology. Not guilty?

Over time, I believe that technological innovation is the best way to go. All of our companies are working very closely with the best brains in the information technology industry right now to try to see if there’s some way that we can deal with the piracy problem. [Read more…] about The Engadget Interview: Jack Valenti