Left and Right Unite Against Hollywood’s Failed SOPA Overreach
by Larry O'Connor
The Google logo has been blacked out today. Wikipedia, reddit, Mozilla and Twitpic are all blocking access to content. Even Star Trek icon George Takei has blocked his site. The moves are displays of cyber-protest against the heavy-handed and ill-conceived Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
From a political and public relations standpoint, this has already been a complete and utter failure for Hollywood and their formerly formidable lobbying arm, the Motion Picture Association of America. Former Sen. Chris Dodd became the new CEO of the MPAA after he realized he would never be re-elected in his home state of Connecticut due to his personal scandals with Countrywide Mortgage and his involvement in the mortgage collapse at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So naturally, Hollywood hired the failed Senator as their man in Washington. Dodd has been the chief architect of SOPA, which was written with about as much subtlety and constitutional protocol as his equally disastrous Dodd-Frank banking law.
The merits of SOPA and the overall issue of online piracy is a worthy topic, and it can be argued that the federal government should have some hand in policing and enforcing piracy on behalf of private industries and artists who rely on royalties as a major part of their profit structure. These details can and should be debated here and in Washington DC. What is striking about today’s Internet blackout and the over-the-top reaction to it from Dodd is that this arrogant, befuddled and inept former Senator has finally figured out a way to unite the left and the right to focus their passion against a common enemy: Hollywood.
When was the last time left-leaning companies like Google aligned themselves with the Heritage Foundation? When have you seen left-wing think tanks like Demand Progress taking the same stand on an issue as Tea Party organizations? How often do you see Huffington Post columnists parrot talking points from the CATO Institute? Yet, thanks to the arrogance and ineptitude of Chris Dodd and the MPAA, these disparate groups are all aiming their ire at the Hollywood industry and the politicians who gladly take their donations and then push through ill-conceived legislation with the subtlety of an elephant in a ballet.
No matter how the SOPA legislation ends up, this episode should send a clear message to Hollywood and the elite few who share the same big government nanny-state desires embodied in the SOPA bill. Annoyance and anger at the pompous industry transcends ideological lines, and when an industry chooses a buffoon like Chris Dodd to handle what should be a nuanced and introspective regulation that polices piracy without stifling free expression, they deserve the black eye they are getting.
Face it, Hollywood: America is telling you to take a leap, and take your failure of a lobbyist with you.
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45 Comments
Here's how I found out that this idiot law will affect us ordinary folks (who don't download music and movies…)- If you take the professional photos that you had done of your kids YEARS ago (and PAID for) to Walmart or CVS and try to copy them, you will not be allowed to. You will ONLY be able to hunt down the photographer- if he is even still alive- and can only get them done by HIM because HE holds the copyright.
I bought a 4-way printer and will scan and print my own now, but I was told that with SOPA I will not even be able to do THAT- To which I told the salesclerk- "Just try and stop me!".
It is possible that those on the left have finally realized that efforts to shut down conservative and libertarian free speech can just as easily shut down liberal free speech? Maybe not, but one can dream…
Hey Feds! Stay out of my Internet!
Well, I hope this debacle gets Mr. Dodd fired as the CEO of the MPAA. If he's supposed to be supporting the interests of the motion picture industry, why is he so clueless about "his" industry's interests?
I saw him at the Golden Globes. My first thought was "he should be in jail".
…..Left and Right can also agree on one other thing – Rosie O'Donnell is a frumpy, loudmouth moron…..
I'm still trying to figure out what's in it for Lamar Smith to be SOPA's biggest Republican backer. Unless he's that tied into the two big San Antonio-based media concerns, Clear Channel and/or AT&T, it's hard to figure out why a South-Central Texas GOP congressman would put his reputation on the line to carry water for Hollywood, which I've heard has not actually been a Republican-friendly place over the years, and certainly isn't going to change in the near future no matter how hard Smith fights to boost their Internet-based earnings.
I can't say I'm surprised by the SOPA thing. The government has been trying to figure out a way to tax us all on Internet commerce for years. 1984 is still alive and well.
As an indie author, I've heard others wondering if this will affect us when we upload to Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords, since Amazon or B&N would have to watch carefully for copyright infringement even if you mentioned Coca-Cola or something in your novel. Or, even when blogging. I don't really know, but I've found my works on pirate sites, and I can't do anything about it except to complain to that site. No matter how hard Hollywood wants to regulate everything to keep their copyrights to themselves, pirating will keep going on.
Larry, Thanks for the article. SOPA is an obscenity and needs to be stopped and it frustrates me how many Congresscritters climbed on board. Fortunately, they are finally starting to abandon it.
indefinite detention of US citizens without charge or right to legal representation…..yawn.
Threat to internet….to arms! to arms!
I'm tempted to go out and start pirating DVD's just so it will piss off Chris Dodd. Anything that makes his life just a little bit more uncomfortable is OK with me.
P.S. Let me add to the Republican Reps who still support this, when you stand with Hollywood against the public and industry, you should realize something is wrong.
Wait a minute, Wikipedia is blocking people from getting on their website? But where will the trolls get all of their proof of the various bits of nonsense they post here? What, do you expect them to do real research and check facts for themselves? This could ruin their whole concept of reality.
I can only assume that Hollywood was hoping that this bill would slide in under the radar. Well, that backfired. And given their reaction to the blackouts of Wikipedia, Reddit, etc., it appears their response is whine about the fact that the public isn't letting this one slide under the radar. It really is amazing; I can't think of a single aspect of this issue that doesn't portray the entertainment industry in an overwhelmingly negative light.
Wouldn't it be lovely if, when faced with tasting their own bitter and destructive medicine, the lefties did an about-face on all of their efforts to stymie free speech? It'll probably never occur to them that this is exactly the kind of stuff they have been calling for to be done to right-wingers for the past several years, but it would be interesting if they did figure that out and didn't like it.
Maybe the Left has woken up to the fact that we're All in this Freedom Thing…Together.
Once a movie or music is on CD, it is available at the Public library for free.
Imagine the horrible effect on the environment and to global warming if all these people who download movies to watch from pirated sites instead had to get into giant gas-guzzling vehicles and drive to the library to get the movie and then had to drive back to return the movie to the library. It seems the good progressive people in Hollywood would gladly trade the lost revenue of a pirated movie to contribute to the overall good of society and planet earth that comes about by letting a poor OWS occupier download a movie. We're talking about global warming here. The death of the oceans. What is that compared to a few bucks to all your rich elites?
This is the last line of Dodd's letter in response to online opposition to SOPA:
"It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."
Dodd's accusing others of hyperbole is rich, considering he wrote following in his letter:
"… technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns."
" It is…an abuse of power…"
" It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests."
"A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials…"
Chris Dodd is nothing more than a power-hungry, corrupt elitist. Reading his letter, one can almost hear him screaming, "My intentions are good and besides, I know best!" His letter would be laughable if it weren't so obvious that he believes every single word it says. He actually accuses others of "an abuse of power" because they're using their God-given right to free speech and standing up to prevent a bad law from being passed. What an a$$h0le.
yes, we are broke, we are being invaded by foreign enemies, we have domestic terrorists (see environmental wackjobs, or occupy movement), iran is building a bomb to blow israel off the map, and they want to do this. wise use of time by useful idiots in washington d.c.!!
Looks like all the communist serial pedophiles who run Hollywood are about to be outed by the remaining Corey who so far survived their passing him around, raping him on a regular basis when he was 14, the other Corey did not survive his struggle with what they did to him. Liberal Hollywood connected to the DEMS in big ways.
Here's the problem with this alliance that I've seen so far. The main one is who is to blame. The right is pointing out that Hollywood and it's anti free speech types are in favor of this. But the left is just going to blame this on the big bad capitalists and Republicans and chances are in 10 years SOPA will be our fault just like slavery was, the KKK is etc etc.
Yarr! It looks like their plan is backfiring. Why, SOPA is so bad that it is making the pirates look good in comparison. SOPA has done more to make "pirates" look cool than Errol Flynn or Johnny Depp ever did.
Smith is threatened by the freedom of the internet. He was the author of another draconian piece legislation just two years ago where he was attempting to have a fedral law passed that made it mandatory for all ISP's to hold logs of internet activity for individual users for two years.
Don't forget PIPA which lurks just around the same corner.
When I logged onto Firefox this morning, they also were blacking out in protest. So is Wikipedia. I fired off a letter to my representative telling them what I thought of SOPA/PIPA. Now I'll pray this bill fails.
Too true.
Dodd seems a logical hire for MPAA and Hollywood. Wasn't this the guy who boozed and partied with Ted Kennedy and participated with Kennedy in making "waitress sandwiches"…or some such thing?
Useless – not useful…
Did not read everything, but I am wondering where the Trolls are, and what they have to say about this?
"The merits of SOPA and the overall issue of online piracy is a worthy topic," Yeah with all the problems we have, I'm losing sleep over Hollywood degenerates missing some royalty bucks. NOT.
Chris Dodd is a complete and total jacka$$. If this is to be his crowing achievement as the head of the MPAA, then so be it. Let everyone remember what he tried (and failed, hopefully) to ramrod through Congress.
The disintegration of this bill is correct on so many levels.
First, I don't believe the public has a right to pilfer dumb movies and dumber songs because it (electronically can). The electronic and entertainment industry should instead find a way to counter as already suggested. What bothers me is the way they went about this.
Secondly, the way they went about it is so politburo and the fact that obama supported the bill is enough to galvanize 50% of Americans to hooray it's pending final defeat. Why?
Because this is nothing more than the camel still trying to get into the Internet tent. Once in, kiss the Internet as we know it bye bye. Obama and his minions will proceed to censor things right and left, particulary if viewed as a threat; Drudge, any conservative non Koolaid drinking news sites, blogs, you name it. How about that tax they have been salivating to screw us over for buying on the net. This bill would have opened up the way.
Rejoice.
Motion Picture Artists Association Like Making Piracy Anti-American or MPAA LMPAA for short.
A bunch of MPAA LMPAA's minus Willy Wonka.
You're right that piracy of media is nearly unavoidable. Video games (particularly PC games) have dealt with it by tying updates to registrations, but with books and simple media that doesn't require updates … who knows?
You could always use the iTunes model, and just charge media at such a low price, that the piracy isn't worth it, but that's not going to sit well with a lot of people, and some media won't make any profit that way, even in the long term.
There is no way to put the genie back in the bottle now that media is digital and infinity replicable. However taking away people's freedom of speech is certainly not the correct answer.
You make a valid point, but most people don't see the indefinite detention thing affecting them because they know that they aren't Muslim terrorists. However they are ignorant of history, and don't know how the government rounded innocent people up before during WWI and WWII.
However, they immediately see how SOPA and PIPA will affect them personally, hence the immediate outrage.
Judging by the average age of sitting politicians (60+), my guess is that they didn't understand what they were supporting. They were just supporting it because the nice lobbyist with the suitcase full of money told them too.
Bingo. And they gave them some line about "this will protect jobs from evil foreign pirates… don't you want to save American jobs?"
Technically they are both right. Hollywood studios are corporations, and run by people who practice capitalism.
They do the same thing with politicians throughout history. When a Republican politician does something wrong it's their fault personally: "It's Nixon's fault, it's Bush's fault", et all.
However, when it's a Democrat President, then it's "America's fault". The party isn't mentioned if it doesn't fit their narrative.
Not only that, but instead of Hollywood, it'll be the government who gets their greasy and dirty hands on the internet control bandwagon.
Actually, that's PIPA, in which the government will get their grimy claws on the internet. More terrifying, it is still on the senate floor. SOPA is for Hollywood.
SOPA/PIPA are the logical equivalent of trying to stop a bank robbery in progress by blowing up the bank.
The second word of SOPA is "Online". This has nothing to do with printing out your photos.
Let's not start flinging poop on a crap bill just because no one will notice the change of smell.
My novels, at least in e-book form, go for $2.99 and less, so I think pirates will steal anything even if its not really worth stealing.
Anyway, as determined Dodd is at having his way, this will come up again in some other form, and then it'll be another fight. How many of us went to the first 2 or 3 Tea Parties, thought nothing was changing anyway, and then gave up? I think these nanny staters will keep at it until we finally give up.
Post of the month
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