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"Threats like that are no way to conduct the serious, sober discussions needed to figure out exactly what ails the movie industry and to come up with solutions," Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "It was Hollywood’s arrogance in pushing bills through Congress without proper vetting that caused them to be withdrawn; these threats also are not helpful to figuring out what ails the industry and how to solve their issues. As the Blackout Day showed, that type of thinking is how the old politics works."

The MPAA, along with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have been lobbying hard for Congress to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act.

But congressional leaders shelved the bills on Friday after thousands of websites staged an unprecedented protest earlier in the week.