Well, it's been 3 months since Japan's own version of SOPA was passed. For those unfamiliar or cannot be bothered to research: in October, the copying of copy-protected and encoded materials, the sale of software and hardware that circumvents copy or access protection, and the intentional download of illegally…

While the Japanese public watched a cult terrorist get arrested, its leaders in government quietly made a move that could make watching YouTube illegal in Japan…

The Entertainment Software Association no longer supports the Stop Online Piracy Act, the controversial anti-piracy bill that was shelved earlier today in the House of Representatives after a week of fierce online protests.

The Stop Online Piracy Act continues to fizzle and is for all intents and purposes dead. Congressman Lamar Smith, who wrote the law and staunchly defended it for weeks amid protests that it would disrupt online speech, announced today he is postponing any further action on the bill:

Support for PIPA, the Senate version of the notorious Stop Online Piracy Act, is dwindling faster than most media outlets can keep up with them. If you woke up to an article today that reported that X number of Senators have dropped their support for the Protect IP Act, you can assume they under-counted.

We're used to seeing tons of Mario tributes on the internet, in live action videos or custom-made browser games where Nintendo's mascot does things he wouldn't normally do. The Japanese publisher seems to turn something of a blind eye to most of these.

Some of our readers hoped that we would be offline today. Some are upset to see Kotaku online and updating.