This is barely even worth mentioning, but it’s making some news, so we’ll point it out. The MPAA’s point man on SOPA/PIPA, Michael O’Leary, told the press today that they’re willing to “tone down” the legislation in response to the “legitimate concerns” raised:

“We will come forward with language that will address some of the legitimate concerns” of technology companies that have opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, and a similar Protect I.P. Act in the Senate, Mr. O’Leary said.

First of all, this is nothing new. Rep. Lamar Smith, the official sponsor of the bill had already been on record using that exact same phrase: “legitimate concerns.” The thing is, what they consider to be “legitimate concerns” are basically none of the concerns that many people have raised.

The more telling point in all of this is the outright admission that the MPAA is the one writing the bill. We’ve seen some reports making the rounds where defenders of the bill keep insisting “this bill isn’t being written by Hollywood,” but in the quote above, you can see that O’Leary is confirming that the MPAA is providing the language. The NYTimes report makes this point even clearer:

He said those who were pushing the far-reaching antipiracy legislation have been huddling with Congressional staff members from both parties and both the House and Senate in the last few days, in an effort to answer some objections raised by Google, Yahoo and others who say the bills reach too far.

Notice who’s not included in those discussions? That’s right. Everyone who raised objections. How the hell do you address concerns if you don’t actually include the people who are concerned? The answer is you don’t, and the whole thing is a sham. O’Leary also points out that most of the tech folks still won’t be satisfied, which basically is an admission that he doesn’t actually care about the concerns. From there he starts making stuff up:

“It’s all rhetoric and there are no proposals,” he said of the position staked out by the opponents to the bills. “From where I sit, it’s hard to see that as anything but a pretext for running out the clock and preserving the status quo.”

The thing is, O’Leary knows that’s untrue. He knows damn well that plenty of folks have presented or are working on alternative proposals. It’s just that when they’re not allowed in the discussion at all, it’s kinda difficult to have those proposals heard. Meanwhile, as we noted earlier, Senator Wyden has already said he’s working on an alternative bill. Pretending otherwise is simply false.

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