I hang my hat at Tumblr
“At Sundance, Weinstein Co.’s Bob Weinstein got a first-hand taste of the challenge facing the studios when a technician fixing a television set in his hotel room recommended the film “Apollo 18.” Mr. Weinstein, whose company distributed the film, says he was thrilled—until the man added that he had downloaded a free copy and could do the same for Mr. Weinstein within 20 minutes. “That’s my movie!” Mr. Weinstein says he exclaimed. “You’re arrested!”
Attention, Wall Street Journal archivists: Please file this anecdote under “Things that probably didn’t happen.”
Two days ago, you guys stepped up once again to show the world just how much we care about protecting the Internet. Together, we generated more than 140,000 calls to Senators, spent more than 4,200 hours on the phone with their staffers, and blacked out 650,000 of our blogs to make our point and inspire others to get involved. And what’s more, this was on top of the 90,000 calls we sent to members of the House of Representatives a month ago. Incredible.
It’s now becoming clear just how much impact our action is having. On January 18th, only 31 members of Congress opposed these bills. Just one day later, 101 members of Congress publicly stood with us in opposition. We are being heard.
And as of today, it looks like both the Senate PIPA and House SOPA bills have been shelved, for the moment. It seems pretty likely that the bills won’t pass as written—a big first win. We now hope that Internet companies, the creative community and the content industry join together to innovate and devise new partnerships to combat online piracy. We’re confident there are effective ways to do this without damaging the Internet or diminishing our freedoms.
You’ve made a big difference in keeping the Internet a safe and open place for creators. Thank you again.
“Many in the industry say the legislation began to stir suspicion as early as September, with respected venture capitalists like Fred Wilson and Paul Graham calling attention to it in e-mails and on the Web. But the cause gained visibility on Nov. 16 when Tumblr added a feature that “censored” the dashboard users see when they log into the site, and pointed them to information about the bills. The idea for the feature came out of a three-hour meeting the weekend before, organized by people who opposed the legislation, including members of Fight for the Future; Brad Burnham, a partner at Union Square Ventures; and David Segal, executive director for Demand Progress, a non-profit group. John Maloney, the president of Tumblr, said the company volunteered its offices in Manhattan for the meeting, which included roughly 40 people in the room and another 40 or so on speakerphone. Employees of well-known sites like Kickstarter and Reddit were there. “They told us why it was flawed and asked us to think about it as an industry and a group,” said Mr. Maloney, who added that David Karp, Tumblr’s founder, “was very quick to raise his hand and say ‘We’re in.’ ”
Nice piece from Jenna here:
Public Outcry Over Antipiracy Bills Began as Grass-Roots Grumbling - NYTimes.com
