January 18th, 2012 is the day that sites like Reddit will go dark in protest to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) as well as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) that are wondering around in Congress.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

The White House has already chimed in against certain parts of SOPA, realizing the bill would hinder innovation and free speech.

I have decided that the main page to Awesomely-Aloof will be a blackout page, but I had previously placed a banner on this blog, as I’m too lazy to blackout the whole site. Of course, I realize on my part it doesn’t matter, but I’m sure others with small sites are joining in with the larger sites that will definitely make for a very interesting day.

The point of the blackout is to show that if the bill passes, this would be what the Internet would become, lots of nothing.

Some large sites, such as the major search engine, Google, will place a link on its homepage in protest. Wikipedia (the large online encyclopedia) plans to shutdown the English portion of its site for the day.

And, if these bills make it through, the blame would be on the usual suspects: MPAA and RIAA (Movies and Music industry).

The article linked below from BusinessWeek had quotes that say sites like Wikipedia and blogs and Social Networking sites would be unaffected by the bill and shutting down a site as protest is nothing but fear. [Honestly, though, I think tech experts know more about the bill and what it'll do than anyone Congressional politician, and it's the lobbying groups of the movies and music industries that are essentially paying them to say whatever they want them to say]. However, I say, if big companies get their way, what’s to stop future legislation on just blocking foreign site altogether? That’s how I see it, and that’s why it needs to be stopped.

Learn more about the Internet blackout: SOPA STRIKE
Google Plans Home Page Protest