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PIPA Vote And SOPA Hearing Pushed Off As Copyright Bills' Congressional Support Collapses

This article is more than 10 years old.

The Web's unprecedented day of protest seems to have had its intended effect--at least for now. Nevada Senator Harry Reid announced Friday that voting on the Protect IP Act, the Senate's counterpart to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, would be delayed beyond its scheduled vote Tuesday, although he hinted that the drive to pass new copyright legislation is far from over.

"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act," Reid wrote in a statement. “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. 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...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.”

Support for PIPA had crumbled during and even before the Web's blackout protest, an event that generated a Google petition with more than 7 million signatures. In response, at least seven of the bill's former co-sponsors reversed course and now oppose the legislation. The Pro Publica project SOPA Opera, which tracks legislators' stances on the bills and their political contributions, now lists 122 congressmen opposed to SOPA and PIPA and 63 supporting the bills. That's a massive swing from the support the bills enjoyed when SOPA Opera debuted just a week ago, with 81 congressional supporters and only 25 legislators in opposition.

Any vote on the House's Stop Online Piracy had already been delayed prior to the Web's blackout protest. But Texas Representative Lamar Smith, that bill's champion in the House, had vowed to resurrect the bill in a February markup hearing.

In response to Senator Reid's decision to postpone a vote on PIPA, Smith issued a new statement that the "House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution," conceding that more study was needed before voting on any new copyright legislation.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. 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," wrote Smith in the statement. “The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore...The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”