A widespread Internet protest over anti-piracy bills Wednesday, led by Wikipedia and Google, has had the intended impact – for now – as Senate and House leaders today said they have postponed scheduled actions on the legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he is postponing Tuesday’s procedural vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said his committee is postponing consideration of PIPA’s House companion, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved,” Reid said in a statement. “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. “
Reid also encouraged both sides of the issue to “forge a balance between protecting Americans’ intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the Internet.”
Smith said his committee remains committed to finding a solution.
“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.
In their protesting of the bills, major sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit participated in a 24-hour “blackout” on Wednesday, while other sites such as Google took other steps to mark their opposition. Google provided visitors a quick petition form for submission to Congress.
The protest led to a flood of emails and phone calls to lawmakers. By late Wednesday, several reversed earlier positions to proclaim outright opposition to the bills, or they said that Congress should take time to reconsider and redraft the proposals.
The two bills as currently drafted expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
Opponents point to the bills’ far-reaching impact that would infringe upon the free flow of information on the Web. U.S. law enforcement could prohibit online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with allegedly infringing websites, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.
