A report on this week’s SOPA and PIPA drama lists winners and losers. Google,Rep.Darrel Issa, Reddit and Sen. Ron Wyden landed on the winning side according to thehill.com
Rep.Lamar Smith, Sen. Patrick Leahy the MPAA and the Chamber of Commerce soundly on the losing end.
And President Obama coming in late to the parade is somewhere in the mushy middle or muddle.
It is a surprising mix of players from business groups,corporations and both political parties planted on both ends of the victory.
Washington Posts blogger Greg Sergeant observes it was “a huge victory for grassroots online organizing” and wonders about lessons learned:
Does the Senate Dem leadership really understand that its approach was a major threat to what makes the Internet a democratic force and that it needed a complete overhaul?
Senator Ron Wyden, the primary driver of opposition to the bill within the Senate, and he confirmed that the leadership grasps the depth of the problems with its approach, and is ready to address them head on.
Wyden singles out Sen. Schumer for grasping the situation and says he has “really now come to understand what’s happened in technology,”
Vermont's Senator Leahy is less understanding and to put it mildly disappointed with the outcome in his statement released after Majority Leader Reid killed the senate bill. Leahy’s stern warning raises the specter that Chinese and Russian criminals may even now
"...smugly be watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy And warns But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem."
"Yes, mark my words. The ever-malevolent pirate nations of China and Russia will continue to sell bootleg DVDs of bad Hollywood blockbusters and America will lose jobs as a result...probably. Look, one day, you guys will come to see that I was right and you were all stupid. Believe it!"
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