The
Web blackout protests are the clearest evidence yet that the movie
lobby and its preeminent tweeter, Rupert Murdoch, have it all wrong.
They don’t know who their enemy is. They don’t even know which
battle they are supposed to be fighting. All of that makes for a
messy confrontation.
The
story line ginned up in coverage of the Protect Intellectual Property
Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is that the dispute is
between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Or, if you read the
entertainment publications, it’s between Hollywood and Silicon
Valley. No, the fight is broader. It’s between Hollywood and America.
Murdoch
brought some new prominence to the mistaken meme with a series of
tweets for his new Twitter account on Jan. 14, following the release
of a White House statement opposing the PIPA and SOPA bills in their
current form. A day earlier, House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Lamar Smith (R-TX) suspended the committee votes scheduled originally
for Jan. 18, although he later said the votes would take place in
February. Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) cancelled
his hearing that would have featured cybersecurity experts, venture
capitalists and others opposed to the bill on assurances from
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) that only a consensus bill would
advance to the House floor. The Senate is still supposed to vote on some form of PIPA on Jan. 24.
Anyway, Murdoch’s tweets:
“So
Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who
threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.”
Then
he piled on to Google. “Piracy leader is Google who streams
movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into
lobbying.”
The
third tweet, “Film making risky as hell. This has to lead to
less, hurting writers, actors, all concerned.”
He
ended the string on the 14th by saying he had “Just been to
google search for mission impossible. Wow, several sites offering
free links. I rest my case.” On Monday, he went on another
binge, tweeting, “Seems like universal anger with Optus (he
meant POTUS, abbreviation for President of the United States) from
all sorts of normal supporters. Maybe backing pirates a rare
miscalculation by friend Axelrod.” He was referring to David
Axelrod, chief strategist for President Obama.
Yes,
Google is opposed to the intolerable bills, and put up an
opposition link on its fabled home page urging “End Piracy, Not Liberty.” Google, not coincidentally,
was the sole witness at the one House Judiciary Committee hearing on
SOPA and was there not so much for its substance but to serve as a
whipping post for Committee members.
Other
Silicon Valley companies, Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! have
registered their displeasure. Yet the industry, like Murdoch, is
under the impression that Google and the others are controlling this
debate. They are not. Tech companies, frankly, haven’t shown the
ability to control much of anything in Washington. Despite what
Murdoch claims, their lobbying spending and clout is far out matched
by the Big Media Megaliths.
That’s
also why the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) statement
about the blackout was by turns amusing, and infuriating. It was the
MPAA that wrote and pushed PIPA and SOPA upon their congressional
friends, no doubt telling them that the bill was needed, and that
their wouldn’t be any opposition that couldn’t be overcome. Now,
protests are turning up all over the country. Instead of recognizing
the reality, MPAA asserts, “some
technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish
their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than
coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem
to agree is very real and damaging.”
MPAA
continued, “It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to
people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is
also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in
the marketplace today. 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.” An abuse of power?
Furthering of corporate interests? What do they think their two
pieces of misbegotten legislation are? What do they think the
stacked hearing was all about?
Abuse of power? MPAA and its cohorts have proposed Draconian bills for
years, with no shortage of politicians eager to take the movie money,
dine with the stars, and crack down on the Internet which few of the
august members of Congress admittedly don’t understand.
MPAA
said the ” so-called
‘blackout’ is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed
to punish elected and administration officials who are working
diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. 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.”
By
“meaningful efforts,” the MPAA means combat the problem
they see, on their terms. The fact that companies comply with
thousands of notices under the 1998 law the movie companies wanted,
and got, means nothing. The industry declines to endorse the
legislative alternative that’s out there, sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-OR), Issa, and
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).
The
dismissal of the blackout as a stunt is simply insulting. It’s
insulting to actor George Takei, who is blacking out his site. It’s
insulting to filmmaker Nina Paley, who is blacking out hers. It’s
insulting to gamers and those companies which produce video games
defying their trade association to join the protest. It’s insulting Wikipedia, Reddit, WordPress and
to the 10,000 or so sites that will participate in the protest the
best way they know how. It’s insulting to the Internet Archive or
Wikipecia. Look at this list. That’s not
Silicon Valley speaking. It’s America speaking
The
arrogance of power that pushes these bills refuses to see the
political opposition is coming form all directions. It’s the liberal
and conservative groups, which rarely find common ground, standing
firmly on that ground in this effort. When Demand Progress, run by a
fairly liberal group, and Don’t Censor the Net, run by a former
webmaster for the George Bush campaign, get together, that’s a unique
and powerful alliance. Throw in the Heritage Foundation, the Cato
Institute and the Tea Party, all in opposition, and it’s a wonder
there are any votes for these monstrosities at all.
In
addition to mistaking the opposition, the movie lobby is once again
failing to recognize what is at issue. Publisher and content creator
Tim O’Reilly, in announcing his support for the blackout, put it
best, ” Before
Solving a Problem, Make Sure You’ve Got the Right Problem.” As
O’Reilly advises, “If the goal is really to support jobs and the
American economy, internet ‘protectionism’ is not the way to do it,”
and he questions the extent to which there is a “piracy”
problem. So far, he hasn’t seen any real evidence: “Defining
the problem means collecting and studying real evidence, not the
overblown claims of an industry that has fought the introduction of
every new technology that has turned out, in the end, to grow their
business rather than threaten it.”
If
Congress wants to do this right, it should start at the bottom by
conducting hearings and studies to determine the extent of the
“piracy,” and to consider whether it’s a business model
problem or an enforcement problem facing the industry. Then it
should listen to all sides, including those ignored in the SOPA/PIPA
fiasco — law professors, Internet engineers, human rights activists,
artists, public interest groups, educators, library professionals,
among others, who wrote to Congress in protest. And it should listen
to the tens of thousands of ordinary people who called to complain.
And
should Congress follow Murdoch’s example and look up “Mission
Impossible” on Google, it will find right at the top, the
official trailer for the movie, which has so far taken in $189.4 million on
domestic box office.