kong
02-01-2012, 04:05 AM
'Mob Mentality' Destroyed SOPA, Says Viacom CEO
"Are you surprised at the speed [SOPA and PIPA] fell apart?" AllThingsD's Peter Kafka asked Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman at a gathering of several hundred media and technology professionals in Laguna Nigel, Calif., Tuesday morning. "It became a mob mentality," Dauman complained, referring to the week-long series of online protests against SOPA and PIPA that culminated in blackouts from Wikipedia and Reddit and the censorship of Google's logo on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Both bills were tabled just days later.
"It was almost religious dogma. People were saying [the bills] would have broken the Internet, that it would have created censorship around the world," Dauman said.
"Do you think it was a reasonable bill?" Kafka asked.
"Yes," Dauman said. "There are two great innovative industries in those country, world leaders coming out of the U.S. with a lot of great jobs. One is the content industry, and broadly speaking [the second is] the online industry. In many ways those industries are symbiotic and combine their respective innovations."
"[The bills] should have been discussed rationally," he added. "There should be a system where the patents are protected and copyright is protected to make sure these two great industries continue to move forward." Dauman and Kafka went on to discuss the economics of pirated films. Kafka asked, somewhat jokingly, if Viacom was forced to produce fewer films because of piracy. "It does reduce your assumptions and you get a snowball effect," Dauman explained. "It makes it much more difficult to green light a film [when your profit expectations are narrower]." "Some say that people are stealing because they can't get [films] in the territory they're in," Kafka suggested. "They say that if you could just distribute better, you'd have more customers. Why not do that?" "For certain kinds of films that could work," Dauman responded. "A lot of things can work. People can say rhetorically that it will work, but you start by testing it."
This story originally published on Mashable here.
"Are you surprised at the speed [SOPA and PIPA] fell apart?" AllThingsD's Peter Kafka asked Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman at a gathering of several hundred media and technology professionals in Laguna Nigel, Calif., Tuesday morning. "It became a mob mentality," Dauman complained, referring to the week-long series of online protests against SOPA and PIPA that culminated in blackouts from Wikipedia and Reddit and the censorship of Google's logo on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Both bills were tabled just days later.
"It was almost religious dogma. People were saying [the bills] would have broken the Internet, that it would have created censorship around the world," Dauman said.
"Do you think it was a reasonable bill?" Kafka asked.
"Yes," Dauman said. "There are two great innovative industries in those country, world leaders coming out of the U.S. with a lot of great jobs. One is the content industry, and broadly speaking [the second is] the online industry. In many ways those industries are symbiotic and combine their respective innovations."
"[The bills] should have been discussed rationally," he added. "There should be a system where the patents are protected and copyright is protected to make sure these two great industries continue to move forward." Dauman and Kafka went on to discuss the economics of pirated films. Kafka asked, somewhat jokingly, if Viacom was forced to produce fewer films because of piracy. "It does reduce your assumptions and you get a snowball effect," Dauman explained. "It makes it much more difficult to green light a film [when your profit expectations are narrower]." "Some say that people are stealing because they can't get [films] in the territory they're in," Kafka suggested. "They say that if you could just distribute better, you'd have more customers. Why not do that?" "For certain kinds of films that could work," Dauman responded. "A lot of things can work. People can say rhetorically that it will work, but you start by testing it."
This story originally published on Mashable here.