The Stop Online Piracy Act, aka SOPA, as originally i🙈ntended. The Act was to go before th🎃e Senate this Wednesday; following widely-voiced public opposition to the legislation, the Obama Administration issued a over the weekend expressing concern at some of the legislation's tenets. Voting on the Act was postponed today, with representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) saying he was “confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House.”

The White House's statement affirmed some of the reasoning behind SOPA, stating that “online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response.” However, the Administration also affirmed the value 🦂of an “open internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation,” sa♔ying it wouldn't support legislation which threatened these principles.

The statement comes on the heels of an outpouring of public opposition to SOPA. While the Entertainment Software Association has endorsed the Act, companies including and Epic have distanced themselves from the legislation, with even the likes of Sony and Nintendo removing their names from the list of supporters. Come Wednesday 18, a of websites and software companies will be♎ staging an online “blackout” to raise awareness of the Act, with Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales that “SOPA is far from dead – just dormant.”