U.S. scraps piracy bills

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are dead according to former Senator Chris Dodd, as the U.S. plans to scrap piracy bills.

Speaking to Wired, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chairman claimed both acts will not be floated to congress again, insisting they are never returning.

“My own view, that legislation is gone. It’s over. It’s not coming back,” Dodd says.

Citing the fact most U.S. internet providers have already agreed on anti-piracy measures as a key reason for the scrapping, Dodd also believes the protocols will be potentially easier to enact as he believed protests against the measures "was over the top."

Under the new rules, Dodd spoke of the anti-piracy cooperation from the country's leading internet service providers, in particular praising Google for their efforts in piracy prevention.

The internet search giant changed its search engine algorithm to reduce the ranliong placement for websites which provide a large amount of copyright infringing search results.

“That’s exactly the type of efforts we need," Dodd says.

"It didn’t require a law to pass. Getting that type of cooperation is important.”

SOPA and PIPA faced criticism from Google which resulted in their demise, as groups such as Wikipedia also echoed their concerns about the bill.

But while Dodd was defiant in his stance on both bills, he remained open to a legislative solution in the future, suggesting SOPA and PIPA may return to congress one day, but under different formats.