SOPA and PIPA opponents warn the bills are not dead yet

A day after a widespread Internet protest, key opponents of SOPA and PIPA warned that the controversial online piracy bills are not dead yet and called for lawmakers to slow down and start over.

"It's not dead at all," said Michael Petricone, vice president of government affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, noting that the Senate was still scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the Protect Intellectual Property Act on Jan 24. At a Capitol Hill news conference, Petricone and others said opponents needed to continue to pressure Congress to remove the legislation from the fast track and start a more open process to craft a narrower bill that would not threaten collateral damage on legitimate websites. “You have all kinds of very substantive, very smart interests who are bringing up very substantive potential problems with this bill," Petricone said. "Why can’t we step back and get it right? This isn’t the Patriot Act; the country’s not going to blow up if we don’t enact this next week."

Lawmakers' ears were still ringing from the thousands of calls and emails that flooded into Capitol Hill after Wikipedia led about 10,000 websites in a 24-hour blackout Wednesday to protest the bills. At least five co-sponsors of the bills publicly pulled their support, with several others announcing they would not vote for the legislation without major changes.