Senator Harry Reid Delays PIPA Vote: Victory for Netizens?

Following the recent outrage of Netizens against the anti-piracy bill Protect IP Act (PIPA), the U.S. Senate announced, Friday, that it has delayed voting on the controversial bill, which was originally scheduled for next week.

In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the Protect IP Act, US Senate majority leader Harry Reid tweeted.

There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved, Reid continued. I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks.

Earlier, John Boehner, Republican House speaker, indicated on Wednesday that the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill would need more work and time by the committee, as there was a lack of consensus at this point on the House version of the bill.

The Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, which are intended to crack down on online piracy of movies and music and the sale of counterfeit goods, have received fierce attacks recently. The Netizens are worrying that if the bills are approved, the U.S. government can crack down on any Web site arbitrarily without due process of law.

On Wednesday, the search engine giant Google even changed its logo to a black banner on its U.S. home page and called on its millions of users to Tell Congress: Please don't censor the Web!

In order to protest against the legislation, Wikipedia also shut down the English-language version of its online encyclopedia for the whole of Wednesday.

According to Google, over seven million people in the U.S. have signed an online petition against the bills.

The Internet has become a fierce battlefield especially after the U.S. government shut down Megaupload and Megavideo sites on Thursday. Seven individuals and two corporations were indicted for copyright infringement and could face up to 50 years in prison.

The crackdown triggered a wave of vengeful attacks by hackers collective Anonymous, which launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Universal Music Web sites.

Currently, the Netizens are celebrating the news of the delay of PIPA vote, on Twitter, and are expressing their determination to protest against the two anti-piracy bill till the very end.

Here are some of the tweets:

If the news is true, then PIPA and SOPA are dead. But we're not yet done. We need to kick out anyone who supported the bill to the end. - Thiefofhearts

SOPA and PIPA have both been shelved indefinitely! - southrop113

When the entire Internet gets angry, U.S. Congress takes notice. #SOPA and #PIPA postponed indefinitely after protests! - PubliGestion

Sopa and pipa are annoying. Obama isn't supporting it. I doubt its gonna be a bill, but I could… yupzone.blogspot.com/2012/01/stop-c… - Zetbaitsu

SOPA and PIPA Fail to Make it to Congress, Following Protests - X360A