Major Websites Are Offline Today in Protest of SOPA and PIPA

Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.
~The White House 

**UPDATE** As of 7 AM both Wikipedia and Reddit seem to be available
**Update 2** 8:30 AM Neither Wikipedia or Reddit is accessible now


The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP ACT (PIPA) are bills currently in Congress intended to stop illegal copying and sharing of movies, music, and other copyrighted material on the Internet. Internet companies say the bills are blatant censorship of the internet and would require ISPs to be responsible for doing the censoring. Minecraft, Mozilla, Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, WordPress, and others are taking themselves offline on Wednesday, Jan 18 to protest the legislation.

The controversial bills, supported by music and movie companies, are opposed by nearly all major internet companies. Google, while not joining the blackout, has made it's opposition to the bill very clear and will highlight the issue with a link Wednesday on its home page in the U.S. Facebook, Twitter, and other internet heavyweights also oppose the legislation but will not be blacking out for the day.

Some links to sites about SOPA and PIPA (all online today as far as I know):

• What Is SOPA? (Very good article that details what SOPA would actually do to the internet)
• Websites Wikipedia, Reddit, Others Go Dark Wednesday to Protest SOPA, PIPA
• Read the SOPA bill 
• Read the PIPA bill
• SOPA and PIPA: Just the Facts

Note: I was vaguely aware of SOPA and knew that it was not popular, but I did more research and learned how threatening these bills are to a free and open internet. Please take time today to educate yourself about these bills. The internet as we know it is really what's on the line here.