Google flexes its power and Congress listens.
Although the mighty Mountain View-based search company didn't go dark to protest the Stop Internet Piracy Act on Wednesday, it started a petition that drew 4.5 million people signatures of those who oppose the measure.
About 48 hours later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delayed next week's scheduled vote on SOPA's little, but equally controversial, sister PIPA.
And the Internet action had a direct impact on Reid's decision.
"In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the Protect IP Act," Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday.
Today, Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, has also withdrawn his SOPA measure from consideration, "until there is a wider agreement on a solution." he told Reuters.
"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," he added.
Wednesday several sites, including Wikipedia, went dark to protest the Congressional measure, which would give the US Justice Department the ability to track and go after Internet pirates, has rallied some of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies together to oppose the measure.
Wikipedia was joined by about 10,000 other websites in taking down their sites for a day. Google instead decided to black out its Google Doodle and link to a anti-SOPA and PIPA petition.
Google is part of a coalition of tech companies that includes Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook, Craigslist, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Zynga, Wikipedia and more, who oppose SOPA.
But many within the movie industry say some measure is necessary to stop Internet piracy, which impacts jobs and future movie creation.
Local
Just this week, New Zealand authorities arrested several people behind popular video-sharing site Mega Upload after a U.S. complaint that the site was publishing pirated material.
