SOPA and PIPA Votes Delayed in the US Senate and House

Whoever said that you can’t fight city hall – or its bigger governmental cousins – was obviously wrong.  Online protests, huge public outcries, and unrelenting pressure from the technology community seem to be doing the trick.  The votes on the controversial twin bills SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA(protect IP act), scheduled to take place January 24^th in both the US Senate and the House of Congress, have been officially delayed.

Majority leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith have said that, while the issues of piracy and copyright infringement on the Internet must be addressed, they will not be voting on the proposed acts “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

This is a significant victory for the masses who have been vocally and actively opposing both bills since their proposal.  Critics claim that both SOPA and PIPA are exceptionally harsh, would be prone to abuse, and would change the very nature of the Internet.