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[Ripclawe]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-hollywood-post-sopa-20120121,0,448613,print.story

After a week in which their anti-piracy legislation got derailed by the full force of the Internet lobby, the mood in Hollywood was one of anger, frustration and a growing resignation that the entertainment industry will be forced to accept a much weaker law than originally envisioned.

A full-on counterattack by a tech industry opposed to the toughest elements in the congressional bills, including a well-publicized Wednesday shutdown by key Internet sites, halted the legislation.

With supporters defecting, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday postponed a key procedural vote. The lead sponsor of the companion bill in the House said he would redraft the proposed law in search of consensus.

The developments were a setback for former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who has made fighting online piracy his No. 1 priority since becoming head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America last March. The Connecticut Democrat was selected in part for his political savvy and 30-year experience in Congress.

Dodd said Friday that the industry would now seek a compromise version of the legislation. He acknowledged that Hollywood lost the public relations battle and blamed his Silicon Valley counterparts.

"You've got an opponent who has the capacity to reach millions of people with a click of a mouse and there's no fact-checker. They can say whatever they want," he said. "We need to engage in a far better education process. People need to know … that 98% of people who work in the entertainment industry make $55,000 a year. They're not moguls and they're not walking red carpets."

That message, however, has so far failed to resonate with the American public, which has shown more sympathy for the tech companies promoting the idea that the bills — the Protect Intellectual Property Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act — would hurt legitimate websites and stifle freedom of speech on the Web.

Hollywood now must conduct PR damage control and convince tech-savvy Americans that it isn't the bad guy.

"What they need to do is lick their wounds, see what happened and do a lot of test messaging right now because clearly the one they were using wasn't effective," said veteran Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com, a reputation management company.

Rob Beschizza, managing editor of the digital culture website BoingBoing.net, which joined the Internet "blackout," said many people were suspicious of the entertainment industry's inside-the-Beltway lobbying effort.

"While folks feel a lot of sympathy for artists and musicians who are struggling to make sales, there's none for the companies," Beschizza said.

Executives from Hollywood's six major studios all declined to comment Friday on the turn of events. But many in the creative community were seething about how they lost the public debate over bills that they say are desperately need to crack down on foreign websites that distribute bootleg movies and TV shows, which they say costs the industry billions of dollars annually.

"We fought for this legislation because illegal Internet businesses that locate offshore expressly to elude U.S. laws should not escape the very same rules of law that currently apply to illegal U.S. websites," said a statement from various unions, including the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Actor Malcolm McDowell, who stars in and helped produce "Suing the Devil," a low-budget indie film that has been heavily pirated on the Web, expressed frustration at opposition to tougher anti-piracy laws.

"Frankly, the problem is epidemic," McDowell said, adding that his movie has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times on more than 50 illegal sites.

Television producer Shawn Ryan, whose credits include the groundbreaking FX police drama "The Shield," took to Twitter to make his case for the need for tough legislation to fight piracy.

"I want a free Internet," Ryan tweeted Wednesday, "but if you like good TV there will be much less of it in future if piracy continues."

Although Hollywood's options appear to be limited, one tactic could be to apply more pressure on the White House to help broker a compromise with the tech industry. The Obama administration angered many studio executives last Saturday by releasing a statement that criticized aspects of SOPA and PIPA even after sponsors of the bills agreed to remove the most controversial provision, which would have enabled Internet service providers to block access to foreign websites engaged in piracy.

Two senior entertainment executives and Obama donors, who declined to speak on the record, said they were so angry about his administration's handling of the matter that they would not support the president's reelection bid.

Technology companies and other opponents of the bills said they wanted a slower, more deliberative process that could delay a new law until at least next year. They prefer legislation pushed by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), which would use trade laws to try to cut off the money from the U.S. to foreign piracy sites.

But the entertainment industry and its supporters said that approach is too narrow and bureaucratic, noting that trade disputes can take 12 to18 months to resolve.

 

[Jintor]

Maybe follow the Gabe Newell school of treating piracy as a competing service?

 

[Cousteau]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?
While we're at it, what about condoms?

 

[Hitokage]

Alternate headline: Hollywood misses the fucking point.

 

[scy]

"They can say whatever they want," he said. "We need to engage in a far better education process."

The irony is strong in this one.

 

[WillyFive]

People need to know … that 98% of people who work in the entertainment industry make $55,000 a year. They're not moguls and they're not walking red carpets."

Making 40% more money than me, yeah how poor they must be.

 

[Data West]

Hollywood's just mad that, with the expansion of the internet, I'm able to watch far better programming, independent movies, etc without dealing with their bullshit.

 

[Azuran]

These dinosaurs really need to get on with the times.

 

[Tim-E]

Chris Dodd is an enormous piece of shit in so many ways.

 

[Kinyou]

"I want a free Internet," Ryan tweeted Wednesday, "but if you like good TV there will be much less of it in future if piracy continues."

Not that I'm an expert but TV-shows just seemed to get better and better over the last decade.

 

[chaosblade]

Maybe if they weren't pushing for such ridiculously broad, dangerous legislation there wouldn't be so much opposition. They couldn't care less about the consequences, they just see it as "Maybe we'll sell more movies!"

And 55k a year, I wish I made that much.

 

[Peru]

I don't think it would be a bad thing for anyone if the industry crumbled completely. I don't have any sympathy for these companies. Not for them, and not for the music industry who continously fight the courts to be able to give LESS back to those creative forces who earn them their money. "Good TV" will live on as long as someone gives paying audiences good quality, the right way. Legal PC gaming won the favor of buyers only when they stopped making their products worse, in headless attempts at scare tactics, and started offering sensible ways to pay for the products. Now it's thriving compared to just a few years ago. This is, and will always be the truth.

 

[entremet]

Real campaign finance reform is needed. The fact that fucking entertainment industries have so much power is a travesty, while education, infrastructure and the economy suffer, this is what these assholes are spending their time on?

 

[Jadedx]

Making 40% more money than me, yeah how poor they must be.

So because they make more money than you they should not be offered protection from theft? So a guy making 10,000 dollars a year can steal from you?

 

[Monocle]

I for one believe that net neutrality is a small sacrifice to make if it means everyone in the entertainment industry will get a modest raise. Me, I look at the big picture.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Put films on Netflix sooner. Don't lock the digital version of you movie behind stupid loopholes. Don't be complete twats

INDUSTRY FIXED!

Hollywood solutions....

PIECE OF CRAP

 

[Klyka]

Without the Internet, I wouldn't even be watching half the crap they churn out, because I live in Germany. Series take ages to come out AND are dubbed. Same with movies.
I don't even use my TV for actual television now,I do all my viewing on my PC via the Internet.

 

[thefro]

The biggest thing they can do is not wait months/years to bring out shows and movies in other markets.

Make it easier for people worldwide to watch your movies/shows and make it at an impulse buy price (or free with ads) and everyone will end up making more money.

 

[brianjones]

So because they make more money than you they should not be offered protection from theft? So a guy making 10,000 dollars a year can steal from you?

think about that logic again

 

[itsgreen]

Don't be complete assholes. If I buy a movie I want to own it.

I want to be able to play it all my devices today and tomorrow and I want it to work when the company I bought it from goes belly up.

 

[Gaborn]

Chris Dodd is an enormous piece of shit in so many ways.

Carrie Fisher agrees:

"So, having recently graduated completely healed and normal from my first stint in a rehab, and appearing in an almost perfectly respectable piece of work, I found myself driving from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., to have dinner with Chris Dodd, this senator who I knew virtually nothing about. Nor did Senator Dodd -- like most people, then, now and always -- have any idea who I was in the wide, wide world beyond this cute little actress who'd played Princess Leia."

"Suddenly, Senator Kennedy, seated directly across from me, looked at me with his alert, aristocratic eyes and asked me a most surprising question. 'So,' he said, clearly amused, 'do you think you'll be having sex with Chris at the end of your date?' ... To my left, Chris Dodd looked at me with an unusual grin hanging on his very flushed face."

Her reply: "'Funnily enough, I won't be having sex with Chris tonight,' I said, my face composed and calm. 'No, that probably won't happen.' People blinked. 'Thanks for asking, though.'"

His retort: "'Would you have sex with Chris in a hot tub?' Senator Kennedy asked me, perhaps as a way to say good night? 'I'm no good in water,' I told him." (A representative for Dodd did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com's request for comment.)

 

[Deft Beck]

The biggest thing they can do is not wait months/years to bring out shows and movies in other markets.

Make it easier for people worldwide to watch your movies/shows and make it at an impulse buy price (or free with ads) and everyone will end up making more money.

The same should go for music.

There is no reason why a $25 import CD, or a domestic album with a special bonus track, arbitrarily only available in a specific region for no reason, should exist in 2012. Globalization is something that ought to be embraced.

 

[Moppet13]

So because they make more money than you they should not be offered protection from theft? So a guy making 10,000 dollars a year can steal from you?

Common misconception, piracy is not theft.

 

[Slayven]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?
While we're at it, what about condoms?

Piracy has, but so has a lot of other things.

 

[Hitokage]

Common misconception, piracy is not theft.

It's not relevant either way. Hollywood is trying to claim that because they're not all rich and because some people steal from them, they have the right to declare martial law on the internet without even making sure that it would solve their problem.

 

[entremet]

Don't be complete assholes. If I buy a movie I want to own it.

I want to be able to play it all my devices today and tomorrow and I want it to work when the company I bought it from goes belly up.

Nah man, they don't want you to own anything. Even with physical media, it's technically a license, according the DMCA, which is another terrible piece of legislation signed during the Clinton years.

 

[Meatpuppet]

People need to know … that 98% of people who work in the entertainment industry make $55,000 a year. They're not moguls and they're not walking red carpets."

So at least 98% of the entertainment industry make 2/3rds more than the median Los Angeles salary (33k).

 

[Sol..]

Eventually they'll come to terms that the very tech industry that turned on them this time around is and will be their savior.

 

[Monocle]

It's not relevant either way. Hollywood is trying to claim that because they're not all rich and because some people steal from them, they have the right to declare martial law on the internet without even making sure that it would solve their problem.

Exactly so.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Don't be complete assholes. If I buy a movie I want to own it.

I want to be able to play it all my devices today and tomorrow and I want it to work when the company I bought it from goes belly up.

Absolutely. They need to embrace DRM-free digital distrubtion. The RIAA finally fucking wised up. MPAA needs to, too.

 

[Moppet13]

It's not relevant either way. Hollywood is trying to claim that because they're not all rich and because some people steal from them, they have the right to declare martial law on the internet without even making sure that it would solve their problem.

Seems kind of silly because the "98%" of them making 55k a year wouldn't see much of it.

 

[entremet]

Good blog post from Marco Arment, an iOS developer, regarding the MPAA's lobbying power.

Every few years, the MPAA’s lobbying power, rhetoric, and immense campaign contributions succeed in purchasing a bill in Congress to advance their agenda in a way that’s hostile to the technology industry and consumers.

Their bills have had mixed success and usually die before being brought to a vote, but SOPA and PIPA came frighteningly close to becoming law. The internet-wide protest this week seems to have stalled their progress and probably killed them for now.

But what will happen when the MPAA buys the next SOPA? We can’t protest every similar bill with the same force. Eventually, our audiences will tire of calling their senators for whatever we’re asking them to protest this time.

Eventually, we will lose.

Such ridiculous, destructive bills should never even pass committee review, but we’re not addressing the real problem: the MPAA’s buying power in Congress. This is a campaign finance problem.

We can attack this by aggressively supporting campaign finance reform to reduce the role of big money in U.S. policy. This is the goal of groups such as United Republic and Rootstrikers.

It’s also worth reconsidering our support of the MPAA. The MPAA is a hate-sink, a front to protect its members from negative PR. But unlike the similarly purposed Lodsys (and many others), it’s easy to see who the MPAA represents: Disney, Sony Pictures, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Brothers. (Essentially, all of the major movie studios.)

The MPAA studios hate us. They hate us with region locks and unskippable screens and encryption and criminalization of fair use. They see us as stupid eyeballs with wallets, and they are entitled to a constant stream of our money. They despise us, and they certainly don’t respect us.

Yet when we watch their movies, we support them.

Even if we don’t watch their movies in a theater or buy their plastic discs of hostility, we’re still supporting them. If we watch their movies on Netflix or other flat-rate streaming or rental services, the service effectively pays them on our behalf next time they negotiate the rights or buy another disc. And if we pirate their movies, we’re contributing to the statistics that help them convince Congress that these destructive laws are necessary.

They use our support to buy these laws.

So maybe, instead of waiting for the MPAA’s next law and changing our Twitter avatars for a few days in protest, it would be more productive to significantly reduce or eliminate our support of the MPAA member companies starting today, and start supporting campaign finance reform.

Gotta agree with him regarding their retarded anit consumer choices. Disney is the worst with the unskippable BR shit.

http://www.marco.org/2012/01/20/the-next-sopa

 

[[Nintex]]

55k is more than the average American or European earns a year so complaining about that won't make people change their minds.

 

[msv]

Heh, can it get even more blatant? 'We, representatives of a group of no more than a 500,000(?) people, demand the full countries' attention, and 90% of the time of all the politicians. Now listen to us and get educated, stop protesting against our bills, it's costing us money!'.

Incredible that people are seriously discussing the piracy 'issues' when the biggest issue is flaunting right in their face. No one's even concerned that such a small amount of people with huge funding have so much power in your government? Note that they're even complaining about their anti-piracy legislation not passing.

 

[Burai]

I'll have sympathy for the entertainment industry when the top brass doesn't green light $85m budgets for shitty Adam Sandler comedies and paying Michael Jackson's estate $200m for the discarded shit he didn't think worthy of releasing on merit.

When you've got that sort of money to be throwing around on vanity projects, you aren't suffering.

 

[Branduil]

"We're not all rich so we should be allowed to ruin the internet" is some of the worst logic I've ever heard.

 

[atomsk]

Chris Dodd is an enormous piece of shit in so many ways.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. 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"

gotta love such transparent corruption

 

[remnant]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?
While we're at it, what about condoms?

Is this a joke? Yes it has. Heavily

 

[Majine]

Focus on making a more attractive legal solution rather than to go after the pirates, because that is a battle you cannot win.

 

[Weenerz]

Malcolm McDowell defending Suing the Devil is hilarious, from what I've seen of the movie, it's terrible.

 

[Draft]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?

Yes.

 

[-COOLIO-]

how much would piracy have to double for the blockbuster movie to be produced with a 100 million dollar budget vs a 200 million dollar one?

 

[SlickWilly223]

Steve Dodd is the former Senator from Connecticut and he was a fucking white-collar criminal even when he was in office.

I understand that Internet access and ISP bandwidth (and thus, piracy) is growing at a faster rate than anyone expected. But you can't have a criminal spear-head the very organization that is attacking Internet pirates.

 

[brianjones]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?

really a shame about these talented people

 

[Osiris]

The price/availability argument is flawed, even something as cheap (pay what you want) and easily available as the Humble Indie Bundle saw piracy rates of 25%.

Like it or not the content creators of various mediums are going to continue to combat piracy, either through technology or via legislation.

That doesn't mean they will succeed of course, but it's unrealistic to expect they will just give up, they won't, and consumers will be the worse off for it, and those who pirate and those that defend them will be as much to blame as those that are protecting their content.

 

[Kinyou]

Focus on making a more attractive legal solution rather than to go after the pirates, because that is a battle you cannot win.

btw. How is it working out for comedy central? They basically put up all their shows for free, merely interrupted by a 30 second long ad.

 

[remnant]

Good blog post from Marco Arment, an iOS developer, regarding the MPAA's lobbying power.

This was a worry I had when the SOPA backlash grew. Some would make it more about bitching over lobbying and restricting freedom of speech than seeing it as SOPA really is. An ineffective law designed and approved by people who don't understand how the internet works.

The studio, the mpaa, the unions etc etc aren't wrong to be angry about piracy. What we need to do is create a system that allows content producers and copyright holders the ability to defend their products and IP that still respects how the internet works.

 

[Suairyu]

Has piracy hurt the porn business?

Porn is one of the few media industries where the executives are justified when they say piracy has a linear destructive effect on their profits. The entire business is going to hell in many ways.

 

[iNvid02]

on day one of a film's release there should be 4 ways for consumers to watch it

1. the cinemas
2. buy it straight up digitally from itunes etc
3. stream it from your own site or use netflix etc
4. rent it digitally from itunes etc

the fourth option should ideally be priced around the same as a movie ticket, if not a little cheaper.
the third option might involve offering an extra level to netflix etc for a higher price for those who want to see the latest shit immediately.

 

[Kinyou]

on day one of a film's release there should be 3 ways for consumers to watch it

1. the cinemas
2. buy it straight up digitally from itunes etc
3. stream it from your own site or use netflix etc

the second option should ideally be priced around the same as a movie ticket, if not a little cheaper.
the third option might involve offering an extra level to netflix etc for a higher price for those who want to see the latest shit immediately.

That would probably kill the cinemas.