SOPA, Spider-Man, Alcatel-Lucent, Cinven, Leydig: Intellectual Property
Six U.S. lawmakers dropped their support for Hollywood-backed anti-piracy legislation as Google Inc. (GOOG) , Wikipedia and other websites protest the measures.
Co-sponsors who say they no longer support their own legislation include Senators Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat. Republican Representatives Ben Quayle of Arizona , Lee Terry of Nebraska , and Dennis Ross of Florida also said they would withdraw their backing of the House bill.
The Senate bill and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House are backed by the movie and music industries as a means to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods by non-U.S. websites.
Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, covered the “Google” icon on its home page yesterday with a black box and linked to a website that says the bills may spur censorship and slow U.S. economic growth.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia run by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation Inc. , shut the English version of its website for 24 hours in protest against the bills. The home page of the English website gives visitors information about how to call their elected representatives.