Wikipedia to go offline on Wednesday

Wikipedia will black out the English language version of its website today to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the online encyclopedia said in a statement on Monday. The website will go dark for 24 hours in an unprecedented move that brings added muscle to a growing base of critics of the legislation. "If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," the Wikimedia foundation said. The Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are designed to crack down on sales of pirated US products overseas. Supporters include the film and music industry. They say the legislation is needed to protect intellectual property and jobs. Critics say the legislation could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free-speech rights. Among their concerns are provisions that would weaken cyber security for companies and hinder domain access rights. The most controversial provision is in the House bill, which would have enabled federal authorities to "blacklist" sites that are alleged to distribute pirated content. That would essentially cut off portions of the Internet to all US users. But, Congressional leaders appear to be backing off this provision. More shutdowns Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, AOL and others have spoken out against the legislation and said it threatens the industry's livelihood. Several online communities such as Reddit, Boing Boing and others have announced plans to go dark in protest as well. Wikipedia's decision to go dark brings the issue into a much brighter spotlight. Over the past few days, a group of more than 1,800 volunteers who work on the site and other users considered several forms of online protest, including banner ads and a global blackout of the site, the foundation said.