Legislation The blame-storming in Hollywood over the failure of SOPA and the Protect-IP Act has begun. MPAA chief Chris Dodd offers a half-hearted mea culpa in the New York Times, acknowledging a “perception problem” for the industry. But he pins most of the blame on “irresponsible” technology players like Wikipedia, Google and Reddit for stirring up the natives with their blackouts and black propaganda.

More darkly, many in the media industry are blaming President Barack Obama for the loss, accusing him of a stab in the back for siding publicly with Silicon Valley after Hollywood had raised millions for his campaigns. One time SOPA and PIPA supporters in Congress who went wobbly in the face of public pressure are also coming in for scorn.

Most of the problems the media companies have had over SOPA and PIPA, however, have been self-inflicted.

The origins of SOPA and PIPA can be traced back to Hollywood’s abiding frustrations with the operation of Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in particular the operation of the Section 512 safe harbors. Copyright owners have for years, in lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit, tried to get courts to impose liability on online service providers in cases where infringement has seemed both flagrant and widely acknowledged. And for years, courts have largely refused, reading the language of the statute to require specific notification of specific instances of infringement — not merely generalized knowledge that it is occurring — before OSPs are obligated to respond by removing the infringing material. Read more »