Sites 'Blackout' for SOPA and PIPA Wednesday

Many popular websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit, 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. 

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!"