TrueGentleman

Meanwhile, back at the Sundance Film Festival, MPAA chairman Chris Dodd conceded that the "unintended consequences" of SOPA/PIPA could be discussed, but he nevertheless described the opposition as "hysteria". Maybe his slightly softened tone has something to do with the news of an online petition to the White House about what it described as Dodd's recent "threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal (mentioned earlier in this thread). A pretty sad state of affairs for an erstwhile supporter of Net Neutrality back in his Senate days.

Also, Andy Serkis was robbed again! His portrayal of Captain Haddock was the best thing about Spielberg's Tintin movie, and his performance as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the driving force behind its box office success. When is the Academy going to recognize motion capture as legitimate acting?

By the way, Senator Leahy (D-VT) is still trying to push PIPA. Yesterday he made a lengthy speech on the Senate floor about how "foreign rogue websites" were "hurting the American economic recovery and costing us American jobs" (and complained criticisms of it were "misleading and one-sided"). Leahy's repeated claims that sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook* wouldn't be affected by the legislation have already been thoroughly rebutted by legal scholars Lawrence Tribe and Marvin Ammori. Sounds like Leahy needs to hear from the public again.

* And, it should be stressed, the City of Heroes forums.

Meanwhile, Talking Points Memo has published a fascinating overview of the opposition to SOPA/PIPA, "How The Web Killed SOPA and PIPA", gathered from interviews with both Hill staffers, Web companies, and online advocates.

Its account of the behind-the-scenes struggle makes for gripping reading, especially how the Senate pulled a bait-and-switch with PIPA early on, how the SOPA supporters' plans to rush the bill through committee and bring it to a vote were fended off, and how Internet activists at places like americancensorship.org and fightforthefuture.org coordinated the resistance to the legislation that culminated in Blackout Day.

Incidentally, it concludes that since Congress will only continue to propose laws pandering to copyright industries at the expense of the Internet, what we really need is a User’s Bill of Rights.

Back on topic, Gamasutra published a cautionary piece "SOPA's Not Dead Yet: The 6 Things Every Game Developer Needs to Know" on Friday. Among other things, it highlights another bill under consideration that's supposed to be an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called OPEN - the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act. While it's considerably better than SOPA/PIPA (not very hard) in terms of avoiding abuse of its enforcement, it does have a lot of the same ill-defined technical language, so there's room for improvement. On the plus side, the MPAA hates it.

c.f. every "What are you doing here?" line from Doctor Who.

In the continuing rout of SOPA/PIPA, the Entertainment Software Association has backed off their support of the legislation, having spent $190,000 previously lobbying for it:

"Although the need to address this pervasive threat to our industry's creative investment remains, concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences stemming from the current legislative proposals. Accordingly, we call upon Congress, the Obama Administration, and stakeholders to refocus their energies on producing a solution that effectively balances both creative and technology interests. As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection and are committed to working with all parties to encourage a balanced solution."

I'd like to think Penny Arcade had a tiny amount to do with shaming this "hatesink" business organization into backing off.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid (D-NV) has released a statement to say he's postponing next Tuesday's Senate vote on PIPA.

This is what democracy in action looks like.

Don't forget Tennant's final Christmas special, "The Next Doctor", which precedes "Planet of the Dead". I enjoyed it the most of all Tennant's last episodes.