Winners and losers in online piracy battle

The debate over online piracy isn’t over, but some clear winners and losers emerged from this week's dramatic showdown.

1. Winners include Google, which has helped rewrite the rules on political advocacy. Google used traditional lobbying tactics, such as meeting with lawmakers, to make its case. But it was the company's dramatic participation in Wednesday's Web protest that helped beat back the piracy bills. Other winners: Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), the two main opponents to the bills; and Reddit – the quirky discussion board and news aggregator caught the attention of Washington. It was the first major site to announce that it would blackout in protest of the piracy bills before other big names, such as Wikipedia, joined in.
2. Losers include bill sponsors Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the respective chairs of the Judiciary Committees, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Chamber of Commerce.
3. The outcome is more mixed for President Barack Obama. He pleased Internet activists and tech companies when his Administration released a statement expressing concerns with the piracy bills. But he also disappointed Hollywood, which has also been one of his party’s most important allies. Movie studio chiefs said they were disappointed, and one executive told Deadline.com he will not "give a dime anymore" to President Obama. Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch, who has never been much of an Obama fan, accused the president of throwing in his "lot with Silicon Valley paymasters.”