Nuclear war isn't the sort of thing that usually produces winners.
I have a hard time seeing Google in particular starting a nuclear war over this. They value relationships with big content providers and have done a lot to build them. If a drastic action leads content providers to pull out of YouTube, Google Music, Google TV, etc., it would hurt Google quite a bit. Users care a lot less about YouTube than they care about what they can watch on YouTube, and the most popular videos are "official" music videos.
It is rare that huge consumer companies allow legislative fights to spill over and impact their core business. It usually just annoys customers rather than generating any sort of meaningful grassroots bump.
Where would they go if they pulled out of YouTube etc.? Do you think they are there because they like Google? No matter what product you have, if you don't market it, it's the same as if you didn't have it. Marketing is Google's other name, they are a marketing giant. There's an awful lot of extremely talented people floating in the wild, who are not under mega-labels because the mega-label business model only allows a handful few. Imagine what could Google do with its marketing power and this available talent - they can literally create a new mainstream music industry almost overnight.
Regarding annoying of customers - when fascism was on the rise in Germany, lot of people should have been annoyed but they were left in ignorance, and that's why eventually Hitler succeeded in the takeover, before turning the country to ashes.
When your government breaks the law, and then under the disguise of copyright infringement they take down any website that reports about it, the last working piece of the responsibility feedback loop is completely destroyed, the citizen is fucked, and the country eventually ends in ashes.
That is the true danger of SOPA, and that is what SOPA is all about.
I agree there would be repercussions for YouTube and Google Music, I'll note that content providers have already pulled out of / are actively blocking Google TV, so Google has little to lose on that front. I'll also say that I think the consequences for YouTube are smaller than you think."Official" videos may be the most popular videos on YouTube on an individual basis, but I strongly suspect that, as a group, user-generated videos drive the majority of YouTube usage, even though very few user-generated videos are extremely popular individually.
I have a hard time seeing Google in particular starting a nuclear war over this. They value relationships with big content providers and have done a lot to build them. If a drastic action leads content providers to pull out of YouTube, Google Music, Google TV, etc., it would hurt Google quite a bit. Users care a lot less about YouTube than they care about what they can watch on YouTube, and the most popular videos are "official" music videos.
It is rare that huge consumer companies allow legislative fights to spill over and impact their core business. It usually just annoys customers rather than generating any sort of meaningful grassroots bump.