Ari Emanuel this week started a battle — or, to put it more politely, a debate — with Google over the piracy issue. The WME chief complained about Google at the AllThingsD conference on Wednesday, then Google bitchslapped him back saying he was “misinformed”, and now Emanuel has just given Deadline this letter (see below). In summary, the agent tells us, “I don’t give a shit anymore about SOPA. i just want the conversation to be happening.” That it is:

I am misinformed about a lot – just ask my wife – but I’m not misinformed about this: one of our last remaining dominant American exports is our creativity, no matter how you define it, either as a story or as an algorithm. There is equal genius behind companies like Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google as there is behind artists who create stories that resonate around the world.  We need to protect America’s intellectual property and Hollywood can’t do it on its own. I understand that the onus is not entirely Google’s, but let’s stop talking at each other and get in a room with all parties to figure this out. To be clear,  I don’t want to rehash SOPA as we can all agree that was a reflection of Southern California’s arrogance, and let’s also not pretend that we’re working together on this issue because we have Youtube channels together. This is a larger conversation.  It’s time for Hollywood, our government and Silicon Valley to step up and collectively resolve this problem. Let me know where and when and I’ll be there.

Ari

(Photo – Asa Mathat / AllThings Digital)