OLBERMANN: Like the mythical fish who pulls the fisherman into the water, the anti-piracy bills that were to censor the Internet have instead, today, been censored by the Internet.
In our fourth story on "The Countdown" — the Stop Online Piracy Act, SOPA, in the House and its companion in the Senate, the Protect IP Act, have been shelved indefinitely.
In the wake of massive protests, Senator Majority Leader Reid announced this morning he would be postponing the vote on PIPA in the Senate. It had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Representative Lamar Smith, the Republican of Texas, the architect of SOPA, then canceled the hearing in that House set for next month, halting all consideration of the act. This, after Speaker Boehner suggested he should shelve the bill in hopes of building more consensus — for some, anyway.
On Wednesday, 70,000 websites went dark in protest of SOPA and PIPA, including heavy hitters Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, and Craigslist. The surge in public opposition swiftly shifted many lawmakers' positions. Translation — it scared the crap out of them.
At least six co-sponsors had withdrawn support, and at least 70 additional members had opposed SOPA or PIPA by the evening of the protest day. Opponents argue the two bills would have led to Internet censorship, because the U.S. attorney general could have then sought court orders to take down websites accused of piracy.
During last night's debate in South Carolina, all of the Republican presidential hopefuls stood in line behind the party leadership, now echoing complete disdain for the bills in their current form.
Senator Ron Wyden considers the postponement of both bills a huge triumph over special interest groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: "What we've seen over the last few weeks from the grassroots is a time for the history books."
Joining me now, Markos Moulitsas, "Countdown" contributor, founder and publisher of Daily Kos. Markos, good evening.
MARKOS MOULITSAS: Good evening, Keith. Great Friday.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, this has happened. You can confess now, 'cause I am — you didn't think the politicians would run this fast, did you?
MOULITSAS: No, you know when this first came up at the end of November, we were in close contact with Ron Wyden's office. I mean, they sounded the alarm. They reached out to us, and they said, "This is going to be a terrible bill that's coming down the pike. It's — they're trying to sneak it through. You've got to pay attention."
But when we did that, all expectations were were that thing was going to pass quickly. It had a gazillion co-sponsors. There was no opposition outside of Ron Wyden, and, really, what we were scrambling to do at that time is just to at least build some awareness of the bill, and maybe try to gum up the works, slow it down, and — if we were unable to pass it — then there is a court case, right?
But the fact that we actually were able to kill this thing outright, at least for the moment, is a fantastic and shocking victory, to be honest.
OLBERMANN: All right, so it is killed for the moment, as you suggested. It can't be dead, can it? I mean, they're not — it's not like they've run and left the country, the proponents of this. Is their next play evident yet?
MOULITSAS: There's a couple of things. Obviously, the supporters of this — the Hollywood studios — they want another crack at it. I mean, that's just obvious. I mean, Lamar Smith in the House was furious that this thing got pulled. He's not done yet.
Now, opponents of these bills, including Ron Wyden, have an alternate bill that they say will address the concerns from Hollywood. I haven't seen the details of that bill yet, but apparently, Google and Reddit and these guys are aboard. So, there is an alternative that opponents are gonna put forth. Whether the studios jump aboard or not remains to be seen.
But, the fact is — you know, no matter what you do, if you try to target these pirates, they're going to get around it. The only people that always get hurt when they try to do these ham-fisted attempts to censor the Internet, are pretty much law-abiding Americans, and not just Americans — people all around the world who use the Internet.
OLBERMANN: It was pretty telling that Representative Smith and several other of the sponsors and supporters of the bill were found by the magazine Vice to have, in fact, illegally pirated photographs that they were using as backgrounds on their own websites. I mean, that is just sort of representative of the ignorance with — it was more ignorance than culpability, that most of these congressmen and senators got on board these two expresses, right?
MOULITSAS: Yeah. No, these guys aren't the most sophisticated connoisseurs of the Internet. If they have email, they have AOL accounts, right? These guys are living in the digital dark ages.
I mean, bottom line is — the studios — the best way to get around piracy is to make it easy for consumers to buy their content. That's why services like iTunes and Hulu and so on are doing so well, because people actually want to pay for the content, but when you don't make it available, or you make it difficult, that's when piracy flourishes.
Now, there are people who are gonna pirate no matter what. And there's no amount of legislation that's gonna get around that fact. These people are way too smart. They're gonna definitely outsmart the Lamar Smiths of the Congress.
But the average person who doesn't do so maliciously — doesn't steal content maliciously — make it easy for them to buy it. Provide a fair price for them to buy it. They will do so. And I think the recent history has shown that's really the case.
OLBERMANN: Is there a template in what we saw this week, by any chance? Could this sort of instant action, this sort of lightning strike in defense of what we used to call "freedom" be used against anything else, like, I don't know — Citizens United, just to pick a name out of a hat?
MOULITSAS: There's a bit of a template there, but it's not always so easy. The thing that made this protest so effective is that it really transcended any kind of partisan lines. I mean, this wasn't a Democrat or Republican issue. I mean, it had people who were from both parties and greens, and libertarians, people who didn't care about politics.
Everybody who was affected by this rose up in unison. And it's very rare that that happens in this very polarized country of ours, so when it did happen, it had serious shockwaves, serious reverberations. I don't know if we could get that kind of widespread consensus on some other issues, but I sure as heck would like to try.
OLBERMANN: Lastly — Megaupload.com, that file-sharing site, was indicted yesterday. Copyright violations. In doing that, didn't the Justice Department kind of undercut any rationale for these bills? If they have the powers to do that already, what do they need this stuff for?
MOULITSAS: Well, absolutely. There are plenty of powers available for Justice. And, obviously, that case — specifically — is the kind of case that the Hollywood studios have been trying to claim are the rationale for this legislation. It was an offshore site, et cetera, et cetera.
The tools are there. The mechanisms are there. Again, people will work around those mechanisms. They'll find other ways to pirate. They'll find other ways to get around that legislation or any roadblocks, and that's why I think it's so imperative that the studios and the content producers come up with ways to make it easier for people to purchase their content, not try to put roadblocks in the way of them becoming consumers of that material.
OLBERMANN: Ah, yes. The instructions that came with the VCR 30 years ago.
Markos Moulitsas, "Countdown" contributor, founder, publisher of Daily Kos. Great thanks for your time. Have a great weekend.
MOULITSAS: You have a great weekend, too.
OLBERMANN: Tomorrow is the second anniversary of Citizens United, and — lest anybody forget — "Occupy" reminded us today. Coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Watch 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' live each weeknight at 8/7c on Current TV.
Find Current on your TV.
