PIPA And SOPA Bills Collapse

This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.

Last Wednesday's Internet protest appears to have revolutionized the debate over the PIPA and SOPA bills in the halls of Congress. In response to Web sites' strong opposition to the bills, important lawmakers have withdrawn their support. And Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, which is the force behind the bills, is considering meeting with the Internet and content companies to discuss a compromise. Most significantly, last Friday, Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chief sponsor of the PIPA bill, pulled the bill from consideration in the House. In the Senate, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), indefinitely postponed the Senate's cloture vote (a vote that would place a time limit on the consideration of the SOPA bill) that would have taken place today, and which has been viewed as the nail in the coffin for the current version of the law.