Late on Friday, we posted a story about how Chris Dodd at the MPAA appeared to be directly threatening politicians who had taken money from Hollywood, but refused to pass SOPA/PIPA. Of course, pretty much everyone expects pay-for-laws type of corruption in politics these days, but it's quite rare for the head of a major lobbying trade group to be so explicit about it. That story went viral in a major way over the weekend -- becoming the most trafficked story on Techdirt... ever. I would doubt that whatever Dodd/the MPAA did reaches to the level of legally actionable... but others aren't so sure. In the comments there's an interesting discussion of the nature of "quid pro quo" in determining if something is considered a bribe. Some point out that Dodd appears to be highlighting the "quo" part, which is where things get dicey.

Pretty soon after the post went up, a We The People petition showed up on the White House's site, asking for a federal investigation of Dodd and the MPAA to see if they were "bribing" public officials. That petition has been gathering an awful lot of signatures all weekend, and it seems quite likely that it will soon reach the required threshold, requiring a comment from the White House. At the very least, I would be interested to see how the White House responds...