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U.S lawmakers stopped the anti-piracy bills from being passed on Friday. The move gave a big boost to internet companies that were protesting against the bills earlier this week.

The government had earlier proposed the passing of the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House to curb piracy of movies, music and counterfeit products.

Entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical companies and other industries had supported the bill citing that it was necessary to curb online piracy which causes them to lose billions of dollars each year.

However technology companies refused to support the bills stating that they would undermine Internet freedoms, be difficult to enforce and encourage frivolous lawsuits.

The technology companies were widely supported by the public after the internet companies ramped up their lobbying and asked the public to voice out against the bills.

Internet companies like Wikipedia, Google, Facebook and Twitter amongst others had objected to the passing of the bills. Wikipedia protested by shutting down its English website for 24 hours on Wednesday.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said that there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. However he did not offer a new date for the voting of the bills after postponing the one scheduled for 24 January.