Sites 'Blackout' for SOPA and PIPA

Many popular websites, including Wikipedia andReddit, are "blacking out" Wednesday to protest the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP (intellectual property) Act (PIPA). 

According to the Washington Post, both SOPA and PIPA are meant to attack the problem of foreign websites that sell pirated or counterfeit goods.

Patch, AOL and The Huffington Post will not be participating in the protests. 

"As written, we cannot support the bills. We believe an open Internet is critical for innovation, job creation, and the sustained growth of Internet businesses. We are in the process of working directly with lawmakers to improve the bills," said AOL's senior vice president of Public Policy, Tekedra N. Mawakana.

Rep. William Pascrell Jr. (D-8th) said in a statement posted on his Facebook account today he opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act.

“There’s no question that online piracy is a serious problem, and we must fix our current laws to better protect the rights of intellectual property holders,” Pascrell said. 

"But I believe that, in its current form, SOPA is not the answer,’’ he added. “The bill has many problems including the potential to harm free speech on the Internet by censoring lawful websites, which will stifle innovation and growth in our technology sector.”

Pascrell, whose district encompasses the city of Newark, Bloomfield, Belleville, Cedar Grove, Nutley, Glen Ridge, Verona and parts of South Orange, Livingston, Montclair and West Orange said he agrees with President Barack Obama that legislators must find a compromise to the issue and “write legislation that will address the problem of copyright infringement.” 

He said his bottom line is “the Internet must remain free, open and uncensored.” 

Wednesday, the homepage of the English version of Wikipedia Wednesday remains the usual page, but searching for something brings you to a black page prompting you to enter your zipcode and ultimately leading you to your representatives contact info. (Editor's Note: The only Wikipedia page I found to work Wednesday morning was the SOPA page.)

Google has taken another approach to the protest, by blacking out "Google" on the site, and asking visitors to "Tell Congress, please don't censor the web!"