SOPA-proponent Dodd under attack by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales
MPAA Chairman Christopher Dodd recently made allegations about Web sites that participated in last week's SOPA protest, now some of them are speaking back.
Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America and former U.S. Senator, made a few comments recently that have made him extremely unpopular in the Web world.
According to VentureBeat, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales called for the MPAA to fire Dodd, saying that Dodd's statements undermine the MPAA and make the organization seem corrupt.
During last week's major online protest against SOPA and PIPA--the two antipiracy bills pending in the Senate and Congress--Dodd told Fox News, "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake."
"Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," he continued.
Dodd also announced that Wikipedia's 24-hour blackout to protest the U.S. legislation along with other Web protests was "an abuse of power" and that the sites were using their power to "intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests."
According to VentureBeat, Wales publicly replied back that 10 million people in the U.S. contacted their representatives and "that's not an abuse of power, that's democracy."
Dodd has said other inflammatory statements--in December he implied that the U.S. could take lessons from China in banning Web sites. Just yesterday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Dodd spoke at the Sundance Film Festival and said the online SOPA protest was a "watershed event" and that it was a game-changing phenomenon.
Some Dodd opponents are so riled up that they even sent around a petition, which already gained over 25,000 signatures, and submitted it to the White House. The petition calls for the Obama Administration to investigate Dodd on bribery charges.