(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY CHARESSE JAMES

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

No more than 24 hours after the White House criticized the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, media mogul Rupert Murdoch took to the internet to voice his opinion.
 

The twitter “rant,” which started Saturday evening and continued through Sunday afternoon, accused the Obama administration of caving into lobbyists who oppose SOPA and Senate version PIPA (the Protect IP Act) and called out websites like Google for aiding piracy saying...



“So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley Paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.”



“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells [advertisements] around them. No wonder [they’re] pouring millions into lobbying.”



One Forbes blogger calls Murdoch’s argument “baffling” and suggests, rather than fighting piracy, he should use this time to figure how to get around it.


“Murdoch wants paywalls and anti-piracy legislation and whatever other dams he can put up against the inevitability of change. What he should be doing is working to find ways to make traditional media available on the internet. If it’s convenient and consumers can either pay a rental or subscription fee (see, e.g. Amazon or Netflix or Hulu) I believe consumers will do that instead of illegal downloads.”


Murdoch owns Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox, which is among the companies calling for stronger legislation against the piracy of copyrighted material.


But many, like this columnist for The Register, find Murdoch’s criticism of Google influencing politics for cooperate gains -- well -- ironic.

“Murdoch, who is currently under investigation in the UK over phone hacking by his newspapers, is a longtime critic of what he sees as Google's role in enabling piracy. However, for a man made infamous by the extent to which politicians would go to woo him for the support of his media empire, this complaining about corporate influence in politics may strike some as a bit rich.”


But Murdoch is not alone in his sentiment. SOPA and PIPA still have a large following in Congress, some of the members of which are trying to get it passed into law.  Among them, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid told NBC’s Meet the Press...


Reid: “...We need to work on this, and I hope we can have a managers amendment when we get back in a week or ten days, and it's important that we try to do this on a fair basis and I will do everything that I can to get that done...”


Reid told NBC -- he hopes an amended version of the bill will be a quote “winner for everyone.”