That’s a big score for defenders of Internet freedom: On Friday, responding to strong public reactions and grass-roots campaigns, key members of the House and Senate put scheduled votes on the über-contentious SOPA and PIPA bills on ice. –KA

The Wall Street Journal:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nevada) called off a Tuesday vote and Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas) said he was cancelling plans to have the House Judiciary Committee take up the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Craigslist Inc. founder Craig Newmark, who had been rallying the digerati against the legislation, called the move “a serious grassroots victory for democracy.” He said champions of the Internet now need to “turn that success into a tipping point which restores the American vision of honest self-government.”

The bills, which backers said would have helped U.S. authorities crack down on foreign websites involved in the piracy of copyrighted movies and music, turned into a test of the ability of websites like Wikipedia and Craigslist to rally users for a cause.

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