As the analysis starts to come in about the stunning flameout of SOPA and PIPA, a picture is beginning to emerge that is linking SOPA and PIPA, rightly or wrongly, to the Democrats. This is in part due to the intransigence of the Democratic leadership in their support of these bills to the bitter end, to the visage of "Lord Dodd" going on Fox and commanding Obama to support net censorship in exchange for MPAA cash, and the quick retreat of Republicans away from these bills once it started to become obvious that the public was furious about the bills and the process that pushed them along.
In short, the "image" that is emerging is that the Democrats are in the pocket of Hollywood, but the bigger issue here is how and who will have the albatross of SOPA and PIPA around their necks?
Kos posted about this before the larger media caught the trend:
It's been a while since we've seen Democrats this tone deaf, this oblivious to political reality.
You have an entire wired generation focused on this issue like a laser, fighting like hell to protect their online freedoms, and it's FUCKING REPUBLICANS who are playing the heroes by dropping support?
Those goddam Democrats would rather keep collecting their Hollywood checks, than heed the will of millions of Americans who have lent their online voice in an unprecedented manner.
Follow me after the squiggly thing and we'll look at the latest from elsewhere.
The Hollywood Reporter, amazingly enough has this to say:
That's because the industry still doesn't understand its adversary. From the start, studios saw the fight over SOPA as a struggle with a bunch of other companies -- Google and Internet service providers among them -- that were hoping to profit from the Internet travails of the entertainment industry.
That turned out to be wrong. In fact, the industry is fighting what amounts to a new popular culture.
Notice that they label this as a "new popular culture." In fact, that is similar to what Kos said when he labels it the "entire wired generation." This is where Democrats are in a boatload of trouble, as they are still playing the traditional political games:
That's what really ought to worry the entertainment industry. For Republicans, opposition to new intellectual property enforcement is starting to look like a political winner. It pleases conservative bloggers, appeals to young swing voters, stokes the culture wars and drives a wedge between two Democratic constituencies, Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
So the problem here is that you have an industry (Hollywood) that is trying to preserve an outmoded business model, paying politicians to draft and adopt draconian laws that give the MPAA and RIAA power over the web, and you have a new industry (which is far larger and diverse) who is empowered by the web. It's noteworthy that both California Senators sided with the MPAA on this, and equally noteworthy that SOPA was driven by Lamar Smith (R) Texas.
Nevertheless, before Dems rush out to support Dodd and the MPAA in the future, they would do well to keep this stark statement in mind:
The content industry has made itself into the villain. Increasingly, it looks like an occupying power, obeyed at gunpoint, despised for its ham-handed excesses and resisted from every dark corner. Unfortunately for Hollywood, as its customers migrate to the Internet, it is losing not just their money but their hearts and minds as well.