US Senate postpones Tuesday vote on PIPA

IDG News Service - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has postponed a vote on the controversial Protect IP Act, scheduled for Tuesday, as a growing number of senators voice opposition to the copyright enforcement bill.

The lead sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a similar bill in the House of Representatives, said Friday the bill is tabled. "It's dead and not going anywhere," said a spokeswoman for Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, had scheduled a cloture vote in an effort to cut off debate and override a filibuster of the bill. But more than 30 senators have come out against the bill in the past week, most of them responding to massive online protests over PIPA and the Stop Online Piracy Act.

"There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved," Reid said in a statement Friday. "Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year. We must take action to stop these illegal practices."

Also on Friday, Smith said he will look for new ways to fight copyright theft. The House Judiciary Committee will table the SOPA "until there is wider agreement on a solution," said Smith, the committee's chairman.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith said in a statement. "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."

Reid's decision came as senators have flocked away from the bill. Opencongress.org, a congressional watchdog site, counted 45 senators either opposed or leaning against PIPA as of Friday morning, and only 32 supporting the legislation. PIPA supporters would need 60 votes to cut off debate and move forward with the bill.

Late last Saturday, Opencongress counted 39 senators supporting PIPA, and only 12 opposed to the bill. Late Wednesday, after the online protest, Opencongress counted 35 senators in favor of the bill and 31 opposed, meaning 14 senators have come out against the bill in the last day and a half.

Organizers of Wednesday's online protest, in which an estimated 50,000 websites went black, said 13 million people participated, including more than 7 million who signed a petition opposed to PIPA and SOPA linked on Google's homepage. Opponents sent 3 million email messages to Congress, and "thousands" of people attended in-person protests in New York, San Francisco and elsewhere, said Fight for the Future, a group opposed to the bills.