Never underestimate the power of angry people in large numbers.
Today, it is finally safe for the internet to declare victory. The House of Representative and the U.S. Senate have scuttled both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) AND the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), throwing both pieces of legislation into limbo.
The Senate had been due to hold a vote next week on whether to take up PIPA, but today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was postponing the vote “in light of recent events.”
Those “recent events” would include blackouts of Wikipedia, Reddit, Cheezburger, Mozilla, Blippitt, and several other websites across the World Wide Web, held in protest of the dual pieces of legislation.
Meanwhile, the House said it’s putting SOPA on hold as well.
The House will “postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman and SOPA sponsor Lamar Smith said in a written statement.
The announcement comes after several lawmakers flip-flopped on the pair of bills in the wake of widespread online and offline protests against them.
“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns,” Smith said today in a prepared statement. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves.”
Congratulations, internet! We still need to make sure they don’t try to revive these bills at some point down the road, but for now, let’s pop open the champagne and pat ourselves on the back! Well played, sirs!
Related articles
- The Web Wins: SOPA & PIPA Now Dead in the Water (omgubuntu.co.uk)
- SOPA and PIPA both shelved for now. (arstechnica.com)
- Senator Reid postpones vote on PROTECT IP Act, Romney and Gingrich come out against SOPA (digiphile.wordpress.com)
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