Darrell Issa, Congressman, announced that SOPA won't get to the House floor for a vote.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Member Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) opponent has announced that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised him that he will not bring the bill to the floor. That mean, for all practical intents and purposes, that SOPA is dead.

In a press release, Issa announced that he was canceling his Wednesday hearing on "the impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on the Internet, has been postponed following assurances that anti-piracy legislation will not move to the House floor this Congress without a consensus."

Issa said, "Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote." Without the Majority Leader's support, SOPA won't get to the House's floor, it will not be voted on, and this makes it essentially dead.

Why did the House reverse its course? According to Issa on Twitter, first the Internet protests had a big impact. "The House of Reps heard your #stopsopa message loud and clear." And, in a rare bipartisan move in our current political climate, Issa tweeted, "Great news folks: #SOPA will not move in the House of Reps" citing President Obama's anti-SOPA statement.

This isn't the end of the story, though, Issa continued, "While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act [PIPA], I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House." "The voice of the Internet community has been heard. Much more education for Members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal." Therefore, "the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks."

In his announcement, Issa concluded that he intends to continue to push for Congress to heed the advice of Internet experts on anti-piracy legislation and to push for the consideration and passage of the bipartisan OPEN Act, which provides an alternative means for protecting intellectual property rights without undermining the structure and entrepreneurialism of the Internet. You can learn more about Rep. Issa and Sen. Ron Wyden's alternative, the OPEN Act at its Web site

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