Wikipedia went dark for a day. Google hid its logo under a black shroud. And hundreds of other websites darkened their pages temporarily in a massive, coordinated protest against a pair of bills that would step up enforcement of copyrights and trademarks. Wednesday's demonstration provoked such an intense backlash against the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (better known as PIPA and SOPA) that by the end of the week, more than 100 lawmakers had declared their opposition and both bills had been placed on hold.
Reid's comments came after this week's historic online protest--Wikipedia going dark for a day, alerts appearing on the home page of Google.com and Amazon.com--roiled Washington officialdom and obliterated long-held assumptions about whether it would be politically safe to advance a measure opposed by millions of Internet users.
The danger for the anti-SOPA contingent is that, over time, when this week's outcry recedes into memory, Hollywood and its allies will regroup around a new bill with a different name but only a slightly different approach. The Motion Picture Association of America may have lost this round, but dozens of U.S. senators are still publicly applauding the idea, and, if history is any indication, the MPAA is willing to wait.
"I expect this threat to resurface," said Jerry Moran of Kansas, the first Republican senator to oppose Protect IP.
And some of Hollywood's closest allies are promising that will happen. Protect IP "deserves to be considered," Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said today. Protect IP's author, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he hopes "to send a bill to the president's desk this year."
For its part, the MPAA sounded unapologetic and unrepentant. "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves (and) American jobs will continue to be lost," MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd said in a statement this morning. (Dodd, clearly not a reliable prognosticator, initially dismissed the protests as "stunts.")
The unrepentant tone was shared by a collection of groups including the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild. They said in a joint statement that critics of the legislation offered an "onslaught of mistruths" to the public.
Reid's comments came after this week's historic online protest--Wikipedia going dark for a day, alerts appearing on the home page of Google.com and Amazon.com--roiled Washington officialdom and obliterated long-held assumptions about whether it would be politically safe to advance a measure opposed by millions of Internet users.
The danger for the anti-SOPA contingent is that, over time, when this week's outcry recedes into memory, Hollywood and its allies will regroup around a new bill with a different name but only a slightly different approach. The Motion Picture Association of America may have lost this round, but dozens of U.S. senators are still publicly applauding the idea, and, if history is any indication, the MPAA is willing to wait.
"I expect this threat to resurface," said Jerry Moran of Kansas, the first Republican senator to oppose Protect IP.
And some of Hollywood's closest allies are promising that will happen. Protect IP "deserves to be considered," Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said today. Protect IP's author, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he hopes "to send a bill to the president's desk this year."
For its part, the MPAA sounded unapologetic and unrepentant. "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves (and) American jobs will continue to be lost," MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd said in a statement this morning. (Dodd, clearly not a reliable prognosticator, initially dismissed the protests as "stunts.")
The unrepentant tone was shared by a collection of groups including the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild. They said in a joint statement that critics of the legislation offered an "onslaught of mistruths" to the public.
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