• According to sources, the blackout was moderately to mostly successful. Awesome job everyone. Now lets kill SOPA & PIPA completly. #
• It's sad and a bit disturbing that Facebook decided to do nothing for the blackout. #ShameOnFacebook #
• Twitter CEO Dick Costolo thinks protesting against the net being censored is silly. http://t.co/17sTKDpE #WakeUpDick #

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced today that the House Judiciary Committee, which he heads, “will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

The decision to wave the white flag on SOPA comes just hours after U.S. Senate leaders announced they had postponed their vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) scheduled for Tuesday.

“The Committee will continue work with both copyright owners and Internet companies to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property,” Smith said.

Source: C|Net

This follows on the heels of the largest internet based protest in the history of the web with some of the most influential websites today, participating, followed by the arrest of 4 leaders of Megupload.com which was in turn followed by massive attacks on Government and Entertainment Industry websites by the “hacker” group known as Anonymous.

My opinion:
New laws are not needed. What is needed is the entertainment industry to wake up and adapt.

There is NO evidence that every “pirated” item equals a lost sale. None. In fact, most of the people who “pirate” would not have purchased it anyway, so no “loss”. Instead of trying to control new technologies to protect a dead or dying business model, and stepping all over civil liberties in the process, try adapting and find a new business model. Piracy is NOT causing the loss of “millions”, the entertainment industry posting “record” profits the last couple of years PROVES their arguments are down right lies.

Like Apple or not, they showed you the way with iTunes. Make it inexpensive, available and usable, and the majority of people who are inclined to, WILL pay for it. The music industry has made BILLIONS from the iTunes service that would otherwise NOT have made. The solution is sitting there waiting for the rest of the entertainment industry take advantage of it.

Quit with the artificial scarcity, artificial limitations, and draconian restrictions on use of your product, and more people will partake.

From the minds of Tech News Today

Speak up before the internet dies! In the style of Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.

Awesomeness.

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