The blackout of Wikipedia and other websites protesting against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, have prompted eight US lawmakers to withdraw their support for the law.
Two of the bill’s co-sponsors, Marco Rubio and Roy Blunt, are among those backing away, reports BBC.
Google protests against the anti-piracy bill. AP
The House of Representative’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would use court orders to curb access to foreign websites “dedicated to theft” through techniques such as disabling links to those sites. The bills are designed to put a stop to online piracy that copyright holders claim costs them billions of dollars a year.
The SOPA and PIPA bills are backed by the Hollywood fraternity as a means of cracking down on the sale of counterfeit goods by non-US websites.
Besides Wikipedia, Google, Facebook and WordPress also protested against the bill.
With Rubio and Blunt withdrawing their support, the future of the bill that was likely to be passed remains uncertain.
More on the story here.
