SOPA revised but still reviled

A new version of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced this week but failed to satisfy critics and a vote ultimately got pushed off until at least Wednesday, but more likely 2012.

Many of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs and executives warned of the dangers of the SOPA in an open letter to Washington, D.C. It's signed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, among others. It's appearing as a paid advertisement in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers.

The legislation will "give the U.S. government the power to censor the Web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran," the letter says.

SOPA represents the latest effort from Hollywood, the Recording Industry Association of America, and their allies to counter what they claim to be rampant piracy online.

The letter came as a new version of SOPA was unveiled in an effort to head off mounting criticism. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced a series of tweaks to SOPA. But Smith, who heads the House Judiciary committee, stopped short of altering the core of SOPA--meaning that allegedly pirating Web sites could still be made to vanish from the Internet.
•  SOPA vote: Well, there's always next year
•  SOPA votes derailed by politician's 'offensive' tweet
•  SOPA backers: It's needed to take down The Pirate Bay
•  Rep. Issa: SOPA won't be approved unless fixed
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This story was updated at 2:58 p.m. with big Zynga and SOPA stories that broke after we published.