Will SOPA cost Obama Hollywood's support?

Depending on where you stand, President Obama either showed tremendous courage when he distanced himself from SOPA and PIPA or a complete lack of it.

Last Saturday, the White House announced it would not support important provisions of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, the anti-piracy bills being debated in the House and Senate. The legislation would make it easier for the federal government to block access to overseas sites accused of piracy. Much of the tech sector opposes the bills.

The president's stand was is being viewed as a betrayal by some copyright owners, especially those in the film and music industries and some of them are now promising to cut off financial support to Obama's re-election campaign, according to Deadline.com.

Nikki Finke, one of the most tuned-in reporters covering Hollywood, wrote yesterday "I've learned that Hollywood studio chiefs individually and as a group are drawing a line in the sand on the piracy issue with the Obama re-election campaign and refusing to give any more donations."

Obama's re-election camp didn't responded to interview requests.

Leaders in the entertainment industries are traditionally big-time donors to Democratic candidates and causes and this can't come as good news to Obama.

But the backlash against Obama in Hollywood is rooted in broken promises, say my Hollywood sources. Up until Saturday, the entertainment industries were confident that the White House had their backs. The president and vice president have repeatedly denounced piracy and promised to help crack down on illegal file sharing and storage lockers.

Vice President Joe Biden has gone on record saying he doesn't see much difference between illegal file sharing and theft.

"Piracy is theft, clean and simple," Biden told reporters during a 2010 press conference to outline the administration's plan to protect the country's intellectual property. "It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's] and grabbing [merchandise]."

That kind of statement comforted many of those on the antipiracy frontlines. But those same people are asking where was the president when the chips were down? Why didn't the president just quietly inform supporters of his concerns about the bills a long time ago.

Instead, the White House went public and helped to undermine the credibility of the legislation.

As to why the president handled it this way, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch made it clear, in his now famous Twitter tirade last Saturday, what he thinks led to the president's change of heart.

Murdoch wrote that "Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters." He then pointed a finger at Google by calling the search company a "piracy leader" that was "pouring millions into lobbying" to defeat SOPA and PIPA.

He only put into words what my sources at the studios and record companies have been whispering (off the record) for months. They claim that Google is most responsible for generating opposition to the bills. They say it wasn't Google's big donations to lawmakers or even the company's strong ties to the White House (multiple former Google employees work for the Obama administration) that has put the bills in jeopardy.

They argue that the president and the many members of Congress, who have dropped support for the bills in the past week, are fearful of Google's grassroots. Yesterday, Google and its allies rose up and displayed immense power to reach the masses and very quickly help sway public opinion.

On Wednesday, Wikipedia and dozens of other sites went dark as part of a protest against SOPA and PIPA. Google blacked out its logo on the company's homepage and posted a link where visitors were urged to oppose the legislation. As a result, millions of people sent messages to Congress. In an election year, this kind of raw power is not something elected officials can ignore.

So, the people spoke and the president listened. Isn't that the way a democracy is supposed to work? Some in Hollywood and the music sector, however, are also determined to communicate with the White House--in the form of silence.