SOPA and PIPA Bills: Delayed By Congress!

The U.S. House and Senate have postponed votes on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), respectively, after widespread protests this week.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), author of SOPA, said today that he's postponing consideration of the bill in response to concerns from critics of potential censorship.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith said in a statement.

"It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) bowed to pressure from a coalition of Internet companies, including Google and Wikipedia, that rallied consumers.

In a statement, Reid said he would delay the vote scheduled for Tuesday to begin consideration until the Senate Judiciary Committee could make more progress.

"We made good progress through the discussions we've held in recent days, and I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks," Reid said.

The announcement by Reid comes two days after Wikipedia, Reddit and other prominent sites coalesced to protest SOPA and PIPA votes by blacking out their sites.

That move that drew widespread attention and spurred a swift reaction from many lawmakers who had been supportive of or ambivalent toward the measures.

So after 7.5 million phone calls to Congress and 40 million signatures, round one goes to the people. Just be prepared to fight back twice as hard again soon.

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/sopa-and-pipa-bills-delayed-by-congress/

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