In protest of the proposed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation, Wikipedia will be blacking out the English version of its website on January 18 according to this source on Tuesday midnight until Wednesday midnight Eastern time.

Founder Jimmy Wales posted on Twitter, “Student Warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa”

For the millions of daily visitors to the Wikipedia website, plan for the outage on Wednesday, and surfers may find many other popular websites out as well as the SOPA critics base continues to grow.

Major supporters of the law include those in the music and film industry, whose products are often pirated illegally not only in the U.S. but overseas as well.

Complaints are that the law would infringe on free speech and bring about censorship of international websites in the U.S.

For those interested in joining in the blackout, here are some links to visit:
Here you can see who is participating: sopastrike.com
A WordPress Blackout Plugin: Simple Stop SOPA WordPress Plugin
Another SOPA Blackout Plugin (gives users more control than the one above)

Here is a site to visit for more detailed information, including a video of what are believed to be the dangers of this legislation: SOPA Blackout Set for January 18.

The blackout will most likely put a damper on many people’s online activities, but those in support believe it to be a good cause, and most sites are blacking out for 12 hours.

Over the weekend, President Obama questioned the proposed legislation, expressing a need to combat counterfeiting and piracy but at the same time defending privacy, security, freedom of expression, and internet development and innovation.

So the legislation was pulled from the floor, but the SOPA critics expressed that doesn’t mean the bill is dead; it just means lawmakers think it needs further revisions.

Not everyone agrees that “blacking out” in response to SOPA is the right thing to do, and of course this is true of any issue. Some have commented that Wikipedia should stay out of political issues since it claims to be an impartial website. Wales’ response is, “Articles must remain neutral. The community need not, not when the future of the internet is at stake.”

Josh Wolford stated in his WebProNews post, “It’s a no-brainer that shutting down giant social media sites like Twitter and Facebook would severely hamper the ability to communicate about the protest. But if the purpose of the blackout is awareness, to send out a warning message, then nothing would be as jolting as seeing a site like Twitter go dark for an entire day.”

Lots of interesting blog posts going on both for and against. Get your two cents worth in!