Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, coming off an introduction from his MTV star Snooki, said Tuesday that Hollywood is unlikely to push forward piracy legislation this year, blaming creative public relations from the opponents of the bills.
“The legislative calendar will be taken up with holdings taxes and it’s an election year,” Dauman told Peter Kafka at AllThingsD’s Dive Into Media Conference. “I am hoping something gets done this year, but I’m a pragmatist.”
Dauman would not go so far as to say the fight was done for now, but he certainly gave the impression that initiatives like SOPA and PIPA would have to be tabled until the election passes.
While he called for collaboration with the “Internet industry,” he also criticized that same group for demonizing what he saw as “reasonable” pieces of legislation.
Also read: How Hollywood Lost the PR Battle Over SOPA
"There are two great innovative industries that are world leaders coming out of the U.S. with a lot of great jobs – the content industry and, broadly speaking , the Internet industry," Dauman said. "We should be working together."
Plainly, that didn't happen, with the bills stalling in the wake of widespread and Internet-fueled opposition.
“There was a lot of rhetoric, a lot of unfortunate rhetoric and a lot of misinformation put out there” with regard to SOPA and PIPA," Dauman said.
He described those who protested the anti-piracy bills – a group that included Wikipedia, Google and Amazon — as having a “mob mentality” and said that their arguments became “almost religious dogma.”
He also called for a rational conversation on the subject, thus suggesting that some of those protesters were…irrational.
Wonder how that will play with the young audience of MTV, Comedy Central and other Viacom properties?