PIPA: 18 More U.S. Senators Oppose It, Including Original Backers

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

PIPA opponents are likely celebrating tonight. By Wednesday evening PT, likely as a result of an online protest that closed down Wikipedia and countless other sites, 18 U.S. Senators announced their opposition to the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Some of them previously were sponsors of the bill. Here’s some background from Arstechnica on the online protest that darkened the net.

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The newly-opposed Senators are skewed strongly to the Republican side of the aisle. An Ars Technica survey of Senators’ positions on PIPA turned up only two Democrats, Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who announced their opposition on Wednesday. The other 11 Senators who announced their opposition on Wednesday were all Republicans. These 13 join a handful of others, including Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who have already announced their opposition.

Marco Rubio, a freshman Republican Senator from Florida who some consider to be a rising star, withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill, citing “legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government’s power to impact the Internet.” He urged the Senate to “avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended
… read the full story at Arstechnica …