Megaupload users will have at least two more weeks before their data is wiped clean. The Washington Post reports that Megaupload worked with its hosting companies to preserve data for another two weeks.

"Carpathia and Cogent agreed to preserve consumer data for additional time of at least two weeks so Megaupoload can work with U.S. on proposal," tweeted Ira Rothken, Megaupload's attorney.

It had already been reported that hosting companies were going to wipe Megaupload's files from their servers by Thursday, Feb. 2, but Carpathia, a hosting site, quickly denied the wipeout date.

The FBI shut down Megaupload on Jan. 19 for violating piracy laws. Its founder, Kim Schmitz was placed in a New Zealand jail and the company's assets were frozen, making it unable to pay bills to hosting sites. Megaupload claimed to have 50 million users per day, who stored their own data, including photos and personal documents. Users haven't been able to view their data since the site was shut down.

It's offical: The main sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, announced late Friday that he is postponing any further action, following a week of fierce protests and blackouts from websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit.

Republican Rep. Lamar Smith put SOPA in a drawer a few hours after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would delay a cloture vote on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, better known as PIPA.

Proponents, including record companies and movie studios, were pushing for the measures, but global protests argued that the legislation gave the federal government too much power over the Internet.

Wikipedia and Reddit went dark on Thursday while asking millions of their users to push back against the pending bills.

Less than a day after a massive protest against SOPA and PIPA initiatives, the Feds shut down Megaupload, accusing the company of "costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue" by uploading and downloading music and films on its file-sharing website.

• Megaupload went dark (or blank) Thursday afternoon.

Within minutes of the news of Megaupload going dark, Anonymous reportedly hacked and brought down a Department of Justice website, launching another salvo in the global war over copyrights and artistic freedoms.

Seven Megaupload employees, including CEO Kasseem Dean (who also happens to be Alicia Keyes' husband), were indicted on charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering. Four of the employees were arrested in New Zealand, at the request of U.S. officials.

Idaho Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Risch may be backpedaling on his initial support of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Internet Protocol Act, better known as SOPA and PIPA. Risch originally co-sponsored PIPA.

In a copyrighted story by Sean Cockerham, a regional correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, Risch's communications director Brad Hoaglun said his boss wants to take another look at the issue. Hoaglun said Risch's Boise office had received 40-50 phone calls on the issue just in the past couple of days.

"He says now that they're coming forward, it's good to know," Hoaglun told Cockerham. "He wants to study this issue some more and make sure we aren't going to be doing something that impacts people who unknowingly, unwittingly do some things."

As part of a massive one-day protest against SOPA and PIPA, Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing joined other popular websites to go dark for the better part of 24 hours. According to the Los Angeles Times, 4.5 million people signed an anti-censorship petition Wednesday, facilitated by Google.

Risch isn't alone in reconsidering SOPA and PIPA. According to the LA Times, as many as 18 U.S. senators had changed their positions on the controversial measures.

Don't make any plans to use Wikipedia Wednesday, or for that matter Reddit or Boing Boing. The popular websites are scheduled to go dark through much of the day, in protest of the pending SOPA and PIPA measures. The Web strike is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. Mountain Time on Wednesday, ending at 6 p.m.

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the PRotect IP Act are two bills in Congress designed to stop illegal copying and sharing of movies and music on the Internet, but opponents say the bills would put providers in an impossible position of policing the Web.

As a result, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has decided to shut down for the day, joining a budding movement to protest the bills. Wikipedia is the sixth-most-visited site in the world.

"This is going to be 'Wow,'" Wales tweeted. "I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday."

Reddit and Boing Boing will join in the protest. And while Google, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have officially opposed the proposed legislation, they have yet to commit to the online blackout.

"If you want an Internet where human rights, free speech and the rule of law are not subordinated to the entertainment industry's profits, I hope you'll join us," said Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow.

The Washington Post is reporting that key sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, are "showing signs of walking away" from the controversial bill. Additionally, the Guardian reported that lawmakers are "planning to suspend SOPA" after the Obama administration released a statement addressing SOPA concerns.

According to the report:

"California congressman Darrell Issa, an opponent of SOPA, said he had been told by House majority leader Eric Cantor that there would be no vote 'unless there is consensus on the bill.'"

However, Wikipedia is still expected to commit to a 24-hour site shutdown this Wednesday, Jan. 18 in protest of the proposed bill. Mozilla, Reddit and other popular websites are planning similar online demonstrations.

Three top White House officials wrote a blog on Saturday, addressing SOPA:

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

The Obama administration's public statement caused media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a supporter of SOPA to lash out on Twitter:

“So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.”

In a preview of who stands where on the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, the White House today weighed in on what is certain to be a significant national debate.

The bottom line: The Obama administration officially said it would oppose any pending legislation that would "undermine the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

In a blog post written today, Aneesh Chopra, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, along with staffers from the National Security Council and the Office of Management and Budget outlined what the White House would support and what it would not support:

"Any effective legislation should reflect a wide range of stakeholders, including everyone from content creators to the engineers that build and maintain the infrastructure of the Internet.

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Instead, the Obama administration is calling for "all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers" to craft voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.

Two websites with users in the tens of millions have plans to take down their pages on Jan. 18 to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, which is currently being debated in Congress. Reddit.com will shut down for 12 hours, with Wikipedia as a possible collaborator on the "nuclear option" of protest.

SOPA could radically change the Internet as we know it. Supporters say the bill will curb online piracy by regulating uploaded content for copyright infringement and generally protect intellectual property. Detractors say it puts too much power in too few hands, limiting free speech online and web business, as well as ultimately not being an effective tool against the piracy that it aims to curb.

Starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 18, reddit.com, the user-submitted content site, will go dark, directing users who ping the homepage or any of the myriad "sub-reddits" to a splash page protesting SOPA. The page will also feature a live-stream of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, the subject of which will be Internet security and all things online.

The local Boise-centric sub-reddit hosts more than 700 members who subscribe to the page's content.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has written about it, suggesting that his site will join the fray.

The question remains: Will others go off the air that day? Markham Erickson of NetCoalition has suggested that Facebook, Google and Twitter are having those talks as well.

Time magazine's Techland has more on the story here.

The good news: Idaho isn't last on a list ranking how well the states are run. The bad news: It sure isn't first. Actually, it isn't even in the top half.

Website Wall Street 24/7 released its ranking for how well the states are run based on each state's financial health—including its debt and credit score—as well as how each state used what it had to provide residents with a high standard of living—including access to health insurance, the employment rate, crime rate and quality of its public education system. Basically, the study held the states up to the model of a successful business.

Coming in at No. 1 this year is our neighbor to the east, Wyoming. It's the second time the Equality State has topped the list based partly on it's 92.3 percent high-school graduation rate, low rate of violent crime, and having the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 5.8 percent. The state also has the seventh-lowest percentage of the population living below the poverty line—10.3 percent.

Rounding out the Top 10 are No. 2, Nebraska—low debt, AAA credit score, 4.2 percent unemployment, high graduation rate; No. 3, North Dakota—3.5 percent unemployment and a $1 billion surplus; No. 4, Minnesota—high graduation rate, high health-insurance coverage, low debt; No. 5, Iowa—high graduation and insurance-coverage rates; No. 6, Utah—low crime, high graduation; No. 7, Vermont—high graduation and health-insurance coverage rate; No. 8, Virginia—low poverty and crime rates; No. 9, Kansas—low debt and unemployment; and No. 10, South Dakota—low unemployment and home-foreclosure rates.

And Idaho? Well, Idaho lands at No. 26 on the list with a per-capita debt of $2,284 (the 16th lowest in the nation); 17.7 percent of residents without health insurance (the 11th highest), 14.3 percent of the population living below the poverty line (the 23rd highest) and 9 percent unemployment (the 19th highest.)

A report in the London Daily Mail says hackers are attempting to crack as many as 600,000 Facebook accounts every day. The social networking giant confirmed that hackers continue to try to use stolen usernames and password details.

Facebook boasts as many as 800 million worldwide users. While the hacking attempts could be viewed as only a fraction of the overall number, the Mail said experts feared the problem was growing.

This past summer, hackers broke into Sony's Playstation Network stealing user names, addresses and passwords.

A Facebook executive said the company "was very proud" of stopping hackers thus far.

"600,000 times a day, we stop a bad guy," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt told the Mail.