Websites Go Dark To Protest The 'Stop Online Piracy Act'

Hundreds of websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit, and Boing Boing, plan a strike Wednesday to protest two anti-piracy bills making their way through Congress.

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its Senate cousin, PIPA, are aimed at stopping Internet piracy from websites located in foreign countries.  The legislation seemed to be sailing through Congress, with strong backing from major film studios, the recording industry and large media companies.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the bills saying, "Rogue websites that steal America's innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs."

But the bills are now stalled because of fierce opposition from both Internet users and Silicon Valley companies, who wrote to Congress calling SOPA, "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity."