SOPA and PIPA put on hold

Posted January 20, 2012 by James Pickard in Gamer Culture, Industry News, News.

Following widespread online protests and blackouts on Wednesday, flawed anti-piracy bills, SOPA and PIPA, have been indefinitely shelved.

Can we get the Final Fantasy victory fanfare music in here? Or perhaps we’ll just go with a collective fist pump? Either way there’s cause for celebration, as voting on both SOPA and PIPA has been delayed due to the huge swing of opinion which followed this week’s internet protests and blackouts by sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, and, oh, us!

With regards to PIPA, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid issued the following statement: “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote.”

Even though those against PIPA increased from just 31 members to 101, placing them as the majority compared to the 65 still in favour, Reid is determined to pursue the bill in some form.

“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.”

Elsewhere, SOPA author, Lamar Smith, confirmed that a decision on the potentially damaging bill would also be delayed.

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” he said. “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.”

Nevertheless, we’re not quite out of the woods yet. They’ll return again with equally ignorant and outdated ideas, but we’ll still be here, ready to show them how important a free and open internet is to us.

Tagged as PIPA, Postponed, SOPA