Dodd on piracy bill: 'Hollywood is pro-Internet'

Motion Picture Association of America head Chris Dodd (D-CT) pushed back at criticism his industry is backing an online piracy bill that would lead to censorship online.

“Hollywood is pro-Internet. We stand with those who strongly oppose foreign governments that would unilaterally block websites, and thus deny the free flow of information and speech," Dodd said at the Center for American Progress. "So I want to make it clear right at the outset that our fight against content theft is not a fight against technology. It is a fight against criminals.” The MPAA and its member studios are among the strongest supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which has drawn a backlash from the technology community because it would force search engines and other Web firms to delete links to foreign websites dedicated to copyright infringement. Dodd denied that the bill would lead to censorship, citing a recent study by Envisional that found nearly a quarter of Internet traffic is copyright-infringing.