Just an fyi for those that don't know. The Government is looking to fight piracy , the stealing of Movies, and Music and such...or so they claim. In order to do so they have created the 2 Bills mentioned above:
Protect IP Act (PIPA) Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
Essentially these two bills will allow the Government to block websites that they feel are helping piracy....
The general public feel that it is wrong for the government to censor/block internet sites of any kind, and who is to decide which sites get blocked and such.
Obviously this has caused much upheavel....not only by the general public but of owners of sites such as Amazon, Facebook, Wikipedia, and many others
To protest and to show what the world would be liked with all blocked sites these companies have decided to do a blackout today, essentially there sites may be down for sometime....with a link to the protest and info.
Here is a link to sign the particion along with more information and what companies are protesting in the protest.