The SOPA bill has been withdrawn by creator Lamar Smith

The much lambasted SOPA anti-piracy bill has been pulled by its author Lamar Smith, reports Reuters. The bill, which has received massive opposition from nearly every sentient being that uses the internet, has been removed from consideration “until there is wider agreement on a solution,” said Smith.

Smith went on to tell Reuters that he has “heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

There has been a massive outpouring of opposition agains the bill in recent days, with some even calling it unconstitutional. Protests on the Internet raised awareness, with Twitter clocking in some 3.9M Tweets about it in one day, Wikipedia blocking access to its site, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg publicly opposing the bill and Google going dark over it.

Reddit also went dark in protest of SOPA and its co-founder Alexis Ohanion talked to us about why he felt the bill was so evil.

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Not everyone was against the bill however, media conglomerates like the MPAA spoke out about those filthy pirates and how SOPA would respond to them without ‘harming the internet’. They also said that the protests were ‘gimmicks and abuses of power‘. News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch also had some complaining to do about the anti-SOPA movement on Twitter.

The bill has hit several delays over the course of its existence, with some saying that more Internet experts needed to weigh in. Hacking group Anonymous even threatened to deface the Internet if the bill were to pass. A Reddit user even got Jon Stewart to talk about the issue on The Daily Show.

We here at The Next Web are also very much against the bill and its domestic counterpart PIPA (The Protect IP Act) and expressed our stance here.

Remember that PIPA, while it will be opposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when it comes to a vote on Tuesday, is still very much a clear and present danger to our internet freedoms. And the fact that SOPA has been shelved for now doesn’t mean a permanent end to its existence.

For more information about how you can contact your representative to express your opposition to PIPA and SOPA, check here.