Ari Emanuel Told Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway That He’ll Help Them Fight SOPA

During the Q&A of a press conference for the SFCiti initiative, investor Ron Conway told a pretty interesting story about a meeting he had yesterday with William Morris CEO Ari Emanuel and Marc Andreessen in Southern California.

“These bills are tantamount to censorship on the Internet,” Conway said, segueing into the anecdote where Andreessen apparently asked Emanuel whether the entertainment industry “wanted to turn the United States into China?” with the Stop Online Privacy Act.

Emanuel’s response? According to Conway he got very emotional, and subsequently told the two Internet industry giants that he would help them fight the bill.

But will Emanuel’s help help (and what will the entertainment industry, which provides most of the muscle behind the bill, think?)?

Despite weeks of fierce opposition from everyone who is everyone on the Internet, SOPA author Lamar Smith vowed to press on with the bill today. If SOPA passes through the next half of committee meetings, according to Reuters, it could hit the House floor in a matter of weeks.

Note: Please excuse the terrible video quality, my iPhone camera for some reason didn’t focus and then the sound cut out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7pr5MUN2j0&w=630]