Congress ready to scrap SOPA as support dries up

The US Congress could be ready to drop the controversial SOPA bill after House majority leader Eric Cantor said there would be no vote “unless there is consensus on the bill”.

The claim comes from Californian congressman Darrell Issa, who is opposed to SOPA, who says Cantor had told him the action would be taken if no agreement could be reached, despite late reforms to the bill.

The latest blow to the Stop Online Piracy Act comes after president Barack Obama said he would not support the bill in its current form, whilst games industry giants such as Sony, Nintendo and EA have also pulled their backing from the bill.



The White House said in a statement that it would not support such legislation that “reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risks on undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet”.

SOPA is currently undergoing a major revision to alleviate suspicions that the legislation would pave the way for online censorship, with the DNS-blocking stipulation of the bill to be scrapped.

This means that suspected piracy websites would no longer be blocked from general Internet search and address functions.

There is still some strong support for the bill however, with industry trade group the Entertainment Software Association and Motion Pictures Association of America continuing to back legislation.