The entertainment industry moved to counter growing opposition to antipiracy bills that seemed certain to be laws just weeks ago. But its efforts appeared to have little effect as a number of congressional leaders dropped their support for the legislation.
Several Republican senators, including Orrin Hatch of Utah, John Cornyn of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, said Wednesday they couldn't support the legislation in its current form.
Sen. Hatch said the bill wasn't "ready for prime time." Both sides of the debate expect the legislation to be renegotiated in the weeks ahead.
Largely lost in the debate Wednesday was the voice of film studios, TV networks and cable companies, who tried a cheeky, if feeble, response to a wide-ranging Internet effort by the likes of Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.
One advertisement from Hollywood's supporters appeared Wednesday online and on a billboard in New York's Times Square. The advertisement began: "What to do during an Internet blackout" and suggested the public read books, watch movies or listen to music.
But the suggestions seemed overwhelmed by the blackout campaigns. Many sites including online reference Wikipedia went "dark" or expressed support for efforts to kill the pending bills.
Part of the media industry's silence could be traced to the unusual position of Christopher Dodd, the leader of Hollywood's lobbying group, the Motion Picture Association of America.
The former Connecticut senator, who became the studios' lobbyist-in-chief last March, is barred by law from lobbying Congress for two years after leaving office. He can't make public statements advocating congressional action for specific pieces of legislation.
"There are moments like this which make it awkward and difficult," Mr. Dodd said in an interview Wednesday, referring to his relationships with his former colleagues in Congress.
"I haven't talked to a single member of Congress" about the pending legislation, Mr. Dodd said. "But I know there are people working, according to my staff, trying to come up to a meaningful legislative response to stopping rogue criminal sites."
The MPAA is in discussions with studio chiefs and Hollywood unions to launch an advertising campaign in coming days to counteract "misconceptions" about the legislation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The campaign launched Wednesday wasn't created by the Hollywood studios or the MPAA. Instead, the ads were generated by Creative America, an advocacy group that represents unions and other entertainment-industry organizations separate from the studios.
Attempting to make Hollywood's plight something average people can relate to, the ads conclude: "Fight a pirate. Read a bill—the Stop Online Piracy Act. The Protect IP Act. And save American jobs."
Hollywood's efforts on behalf of the legislation seemed outpaced by its opponents in Silicon Valley. Technology companies have been aggressive in wooing the public to their cause, and have spent heavily on lobbyists.
Some famous names in tech joined in the fray on Wednesday. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt were among those who took to social-media websites to voice opposition to the bills: the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA. "We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in a message posted on Facebook.
Mr. Dodd was hired by the studios, in part, because of the potential long-term benefits of his Washington connections and clout, despite the obvious short-term handicaps.
"My learning curve has been steep, obviously," he said. "I didn't spend years in Congress on these issues. But I've got people who go back to the [former MPAA chief] Jack Valenti years, so I've got a lot of in-house knowledge."
The former senator has actively cultivated allies among his new constituents. Over the weekend, he could be spotted at parties after the Golden Globe Awards. He sought to allay fears provoked by a statement issued a day earlier by the Obama administration expressing concerns about the legislation.
At a party hosted by HBO, Mr. Dodd huddled with Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeff Bewkes. The former senator said he has enlisted the support of senior executives at Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp. and Warner Bros., including the advice of the studios' general counsels, in framing his efforts.
While the media chiefs debated their course, online protests organized against the antipiracy legislation darkened swaths of the Internet.
As of 4:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, 4.5 million people had signed Google's petition against SOPA and PIPA, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
Some protesters took their message offline and into the streets. Several hundred people gathered for an anti-SOPA rally outside of San Francisco's City Hall on Wednesday.
Speeches from tech luminaries including angel investor Ron Conway and rapper turned investor MC Hammer drew cheers from a crowd that included many start-up founders and employees, some wearing T-shirts promoting their companies.
The rapper was one of the biggest draws at the San Francisco rally. "We don't want people who spend their days legislating trying to control creativity," he said.
Protesters in New York gathered outside the offices of Sen. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D.-N.Y.), carrying signs criticizing the bills. One sign read: "Loading a cat, buffering a song; SOPA & PIPA are just plain wrong."
Both Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand are sponsors of the Protect Intellectual Property Act.
The bills pending in the House and the Senate are nearly identical. The legislation is supposed to block access and funding to foreign-based websites that offer pirated movies, television shows and other media.
The bills would give the U.S. attorney general the ability to cut off funding and access to websites deemed to infringe copyrights. The legislation has been criticized by technology companies as overly restrictive and broad.
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