Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, made a statement today that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) told Reuters. “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.”
The move comes just 2 days after widespread protest on the Internet which included a number of major websites like Wikipedia and Reddit (among many others) going dark to signal their displeasure with the bill.
The protest very quickly resulted in several Congressmen dropping their support for SOPA and its Senate counterpart, PIPA. The PIPA bill has also been taken off the table for the time being.
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