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The U.S. Congress has decided to put Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA or SOPA's counterpart in the Senate) on indefinite hold, following a flood of protest against the two controversial anti-piracy bills. The Web giants have won the first round in this Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley battle. But will the Hollywood giants keep quiet or will it stage a comeback?
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SOPA/PIPA Down and Out for Now
On Friday, Republican Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) put SOPA on hold just a few hours after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced via Twitter that he would delay putting PIPA on vote.
"There's no reason that legitimate issues raised about PROTECT IP can't be resolved," he twitted. "Counterfeiting & piracy cost 1000s of #jobs yearly. Americans rightfully expect to be fairly compensated 4 their work. I'm optimistic that we can reach compromise on PROTECT IP in coming week."
The decision of the U.S. Congress was a big blow to the proponents of the bill, including record companies, movie studios, and other content providers and copyright holders and, was a symbolical victory to the Web giants, who vehemently have been arguing that the legislation gave the federal government too much power over the Internet.
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The U.S. Congress decision to shelve the two bills came within 48 hours after Web giants like Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Craigslist staged a protest either by blacking out their sites or by highlighting the importance of protesting against the anti-piracy bills.
On Thursday, Google said over seven million people had signed an online petition against SOPA/PIPA.
Round One Victory Goes to Silicon Valley Giants - But for How Long?
However, though round one victory goes to the Web giants, the war of control over the Internet and especially, how revenue is generated on the Internet, is far from over.
Senator Reid said U.S. lawmakers "must take action to stop" online piracy and counterfeiting, and though the PIPA has been shelved for now, Reid said he believed that it was an "extremely important" piece of legislation that could move forward "in the coming weeks."
While Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) said PIPA "deserves to be considered," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said he's hopeful that the bill will be sent to "the president's desk this year."
“More time will pass with jobs lost and economies hurt by foreign criminals who are stealing American intellectual property and selling it back to American consumers,” Leahy said in a statement.
The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America,), News Corp., CBS Corp., Universal Music, American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Business Software Alliance, are some of the strong backers of the bills.
No wonder, Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), who is opposing PIPA, said that he "expect this threat to resurface."
