Roundup: PIPA collapses, SOPA hearing to resume in February

The unprecedented blackout of websites yesterday in protest of the highly criticized Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) legislation saw Wikipedia’s English site shut down for 24 hours, as well as countless other websites displaying their disapproval of the bills. Even Google aired its disgrace by blacking out its Google logo on their homepage.

Twitter released data yesterday saying the popular micro blogging service had recorded over 3 million Tweets about PIPA and SOPA. Most were in support of the protest, but as the day wore on some took to Twitter to vent their frustration at being unable to use the websites that had shut down in protest.

Senate members rushed for the doors with 18 Senators announcing they opposed the new PIPA bill. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) blamed the mass exodus on Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) for “pushing forward with a flawed bill that needs much work,” according to reports by Ars Technica.

One of the chamber’s longest-serving members, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said PIPA was “simply not ready for the prime time.” A view echoed by many of those withdrawing support.

Sen. Marco Rubio also withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill, saying via Facebook that there was “legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government’s power to impact the Internet. Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences.”

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