The controversial legislation against online piracy, caused an unprecedented online powerful activism. The protest movement that attracted the solidarity of high profile websites that make the rules of the game when it comes to online world, like Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla and many others as well as small but feisty websites all around the Internet managed to determine congressional representatives to change their minds on this matter. Even SOPA and PIPA sponsors dropped the unpopular law like a hot potato.
Lamar Smith, for instance, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the SOPA sponsors explained his committee won’t back the bill next month. He also added that he will “wait until there is wider agreement on a solution” before pushing the legislation.
Harry Ried, Senate Majority Leader, explained his opinion on the matter and he tried to keep some hope that the law will eventually pass. “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved,” Reid added. “Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices.”
Not many were convinced that SOPA and PIPA are the best solution for this issue. Patrick Lehay, one PIPA sponsor explained that Leahy said “the day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem.”
Don’t celebrate victory against SOPA…
Postponement of Vote just means Postponement until the subject is out of the news and then they’ll push it through claiming they made changes, while it really remains the same.
Don’t forget, those who currently control selection of news bits, The joint owners of AP and Reuters will fight no holds barred for retaining that control. The content industry is not even your main enemy, they are just being put in the limelight, cause the real movers like to stay invisible.