Hollywood switches tactics in online piracy fight with Silicon Valley

Hollywood studios and the recording industry are pressuring Silicon Valley to take up the banner against online piracy. With their preferred legislative solution dead in Congress, entertainment companies are enlisting lawmakers in a public campaign designed to push Google and other search engines into taking action.

That effort began in earnest on Sept 18, when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) released a study that said search engines share blame for the rampant copyright infringement on the Internet. The day after the study was released, the MPAA announced it was sending a full-time representative to Silicon Valley to try and build bridges in the tech community. Combining public criticism with private outreach is “risky in some ways,” one tech lobbyist said. “But I think it’s the hand that they have to play.”