SOPA and PIPA postponed indefinitely after protests
It's surprising to me to see all of this. These bills have been a hot topic in my industry for some time, and we started organizing against them back in August at HostingCon.
When I spoke to our congressional representatives on behalf of the company I work for (because that's just how I roll) they all gave me the same line, which I can translate from political-speak to English like so: "Hollywood is big business in Southern California, so we're going to do what they want us to do."
We continued to chip away, and when the idea of an online protest was hatched I thought it was a good idea but unless some
big sites took part, it would be ineffective. I guess you could call Wikipedia a big site, so when Jimmy Wales agreed to go dark for 24 hours, it was like the dams burst. Then when everyone actually did what they said they were going to do, I knew we had a shot.
Politicians love money, but if they don't get re-elected, the gravy train stops. So it's good to see that us peons can still put a hurt on them. They are fear-driven, so if we can manage to frighten them they will do our bidding.
At least until some closed-door meeting where they pass this shit somehow under the radar.
But until then, I'm proud that everyone pulled together to present a unified message. Even if that message was only, "NO!"