Ding, dong, the bill is dead — or at the very least buried, even if it may well rise again in another form in a year or so.

Regardless, the withdrawal of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and the tabling of PIPA (its equivalent in the Senate) Friday marks a stunning victory for Internet activists over Hollywood lobbyists.

Last week, the bills seemed certain to pass. Given the large amount of support from Congressmen who had received funding from the Motion Picture Association of America or the Recording Industry Association of America — Congressmen in both houses, on both sides of the aisle — the speed of the turnabout has us looking for explanations.

Naturally, no one person or organization brought this change about on their own. But who is most responsible? Should we thank Wikipedia for going dark and raising awareness? Google or Facebook, for taking smaller steps? Or the GOP presidential candidates who were suddenly united by their SOPA opposition at Thursday night's debate (and may well have influenced Rep. Lamar Smith, the bill's sponsor and a Republican)?

Or was it more a case of myriad small activists, too numerous to mention, banding together and encouraging the rest of us to call our representatives?

Take our poll — and let us know in the comments if there are any more candidates we should add to the list.

SOPA And PIPA: A Timeline Of How We Got Here

Image courtesy of Kimonomania; Flickr.