WHEN THE Obama administration announced last weekend its opposition to major elements of two congressional Bills intended to curtail copyright violations on the internet, the technology industry, which has been loudly fighting the proposed legislation, could declare victory.
But few people in Silicon Valley or Hollywood consider the battle over. The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood studios and is a principal proponent of the anti-piracy legislation, suggested that it would continue to push the administration to approve a modified version of the Bills, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.
News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch, in the hours after the White House announcement, accused US president Barack Obama of capitulating to the technology industry. “So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery,” he posted on Twitter.
The anti-piracy Bills presented a difficult test to a young, disorganised and largely politically inactive technology industry. It is unclear that companies like Facebook and Google, left to themselves, could have swayed members of Congress or the White House without using the internet to marshal opposition from technologists, entrepreneurs and tech-savvy consumers.
Opposition came from a vast spectrum, including cybersecurity specialists who worried about a provision to tinker with internet addresses and venture capitalists who feared the legislation would thwart the innovation of technology start-ups. The opposition has been fuelled by some of the most innovative parts of the internet – Twitter, Facebook, Reddit.comand even the I Can Haz Cheezburger? sites.
“Looks like the internet is winning a battle against some really bad potential law,” Craigslist founder Craig Newmark wrote in a blog post on Sunday.
Markham Erickson, executive director of Net Coalition, whose members include Google and Yahoo, says it is too soon to dismiss the House of Representatives or US Senate versions of the anti-piracy Bills. “I think the White House statement is very strong and it helps but, no, I don’t think it’s dead.”
He says it is still an open question whether his group will seek to kill the Bills or push for major changes. Firms such as AOL, Facebook, Google and Yahoo endorse an alternative that seeks to punish foreign sites that engage in copyright infringement through international trade law. That Bill is co-sponsored by Republican representative Darrell Issa.
Last week, Issa said his party’s leader, Eric Cantor, had assured him that the Stop Online Piracy Act would not come up for a vote until there was consensus. For technology companies, that holds out the promise of returning to the drawing board. For Hollywood and other media companies challenged by piracy, it defers the prospects of anti-piracy legislation.
“We have a chance to reset the legislative table to find out what kind of legislation is needed,” Erickson says. “We have an opportunity to step back, recalibrate and understand what the problem is.”
Several prominent websites and start-ups that have been among the most vocal opposition to the Bills say they will not let up on their online advocacy. The comments by the US administration’s chief technology officials was a sign that they were beginning to pay attention to the cries of concern from the technology industry about the Bills’ ability to enable censorship and tamper with the livelihood of businesses on the internet.
"It's encouraging that we got this far against the odds, but it's far from over," says Erik Martin, general manager of Reddit.com, a social news site that has generated some of the loudest criticism of the Bills. "We're all still pretty scared that this might pass in one form or another. It's not a battle between Hollywood and tech, it's people who get the internet and those who don't."
Reddit led a site-wide blackout on Wednesday to protest the Bills – an effort joined by other sites including Wikipedia, BoingBoing and the Cheezburger Network.
The rallying of the internet and heavyweights in the technology world is significant because it is one of the few times the industry has united around a focal point, says Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School who studies how the internet affects society.
Although issues such as tax credits, patent policies and net neutrality have driven industry leaders to Washington in the past, the Stop Online Piracy Act “awakened the entire tech world”, he says. “They are realising just how big this fight was becoming.”
Michael O’Leary, executive vice-president of the Motion Picture Association of America, says his group was disappointed by parts of the White House statement but hopes the Obama administration will follow through on its stated commitment to stop copyright infringement. “They believe piracy is a problem, that legislation is needed,” O’Leary says. “We take them at their word.”
He says the association opposes the alternative Bill sponsored by Issa because it would be cumbersome. The group will continue to lobby for the existing Bills, he says. “I don’t think we need to go back to the drawing board. What we have here is a good framework.”
Several people involved in the technology industry, including venture capitalist Fred Wilson, express hope for a mutually beneficial outcome. “What I’d love to see happen,” says Wilson, “is that the people from the entertainment industry . . . get together with a group of people from the technology industry who have been actively fighting against this thing and talk about the right way to solve the problem.”
Martin of Reddit says he would be willing to work with government officials to draft legislation that would help prevent copyright infringement without threatening the livelihood of Reddit and similar sites. "The internet is disruptive and chaotic and it does allow things that are bad, like unauthorised piracy, but the answer is not to have the federal government enforce potentially bad bureaucracy and legislation. That's not the way to actually solve anything." – (New York Times service)
