Senators Abandon Online Piracy Bills

Congressional support for controversial online piracy legislation eroded dramatically on Wednesay in the face of an unprecedented online protest supported by tech titans such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook. Several key senators withdrew their support from the Senate’s Protect IP Act, including Tea Party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), an elected member of his party’s leadership.  Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-Texas), who leads the Senate GOP campaign team, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also retreated from the bill.  Thousands of websites went dark on Wednesday to protest the two Internet piracy bills, the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA)/ Brendan Sasso and Gautham Nagesh , The Hill (Hillicon Valley). More here. (AP photo: Demonstrators protest in front of the building housing the New York offices of U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gilliband earlier today)

Question: Do you want the U.S. government involved in regulating the Internet?