We interrupt our usual pop culture fluff to talk about a serious issue that hopefully will finally get the attention it deserves.  Wikipedia joined a growing list of Web sites that announced they would "go dark" on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, to protest proposed bills that aim to battle copyright infringement, but might also threaten the very existence of the free Internet upon which we have come to depend.

Congress has two bills in the works -- the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by the House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) by the Senate -- which both have good intentions to combat cyber-piracy, but also unfortunately enable the shutting down of Web sites if any user posts contested content. 

YouTube, Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, WordPress, and many other sites rightfully fear the potential abuse of such power. In addition to possible government censorship, it also grants big corporations the legal power to go so far as to quell virtually any user-generated content or online conversations about their brands or properties that might up until now have been considered fair use.

Is Wikipedia's participation in the protest misguided?  (Read Paul Levinson's blog, Infinite Regress, for a strong criticism against shutting down its service for 24 hours.) Or is Wikipedia's announced action a necessary move in the face of what has up until now been relative silence on the issue by most of the mainstream media (who happen to be owned my major conglomerates that lobbied for the legislation in the first place)?

If sites like Wikipedia matter to you, it's time to pay attention and fight to keep the Internet free.