The technology industry that includes big names such as Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia revolted against two bills Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in January. Following this, revolt media companies immediately poured in a negative reaction as they use these bills to protect movies, television shows, video games and music against online theft from rogue websites. Because both technology industry and media has different views on this matter a debate is set to take place to come out with a solution that works for both. “They tsunamied the conversation with rhetoric, and we were unprepared to fight back,” Tom Dooley, chief operating officer at Viacom, said of the technology industry. “We’re going to have to find a solution that works better for everyone.” Following this, a conference has been held in Sun Valley, Idaho, where executives from both the fields media and technology will get together to debate this matter and find a solution. This conference will be sponsored by the boutique investment firm Allen & Company. “There’s an agreement on both sides that there should be some period of time when everyone steps back and reassesses,” said Michael O’Leary, a senior executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. Some of the top end executives who will be attending this conference are Rupert Murdoch and Chase Carey, the chief executive and chief operating officer of News Corporation; Philippe Dauman, chief of Viacom; Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief of Time Warner; and Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. Tim Cook, chief of Apple, and Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin. The Sun Valley is believed to provide a good atmosphere for the discussion of something so important. “We thought about what’s in the long-term interest of the Internet ecosystem. And that’s a set of best practices that people feel comfortable with,” said Cary Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America. A few months back Mr. Sherman said it was hard to negotiate with Google when the company is “attempting to undermine your very existence “The legislative route is no longer appealing or practical,” Mr. Sherman said in an interview. In order to overcome this problem companies will have to take help of premium content. Google in a statement has said, “Company is in constant conversations with content creators about how to help them reach protect new audiences online and protect against piracy. Last year alone we took down five million infringing Web pages and invested more than $60 million in the fight against bad ads.” Initially when consumers came to know about protest going on against SOPA and PIPA, they took web’s side believing this would hinder internet freedom. However, they also believed that if content was readily available at reasonable prices consumers would not turn to pirated versions.
