SOPA Blackout Jan. 18: All You Need to Know About the Controversial Bill, Protesters, Supporters and More

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently under debate in the U.S. Congress, has Web giants like Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Wordpress, Boing Boing, Mozilla and others up in arms as, not only it is ridden with thorny copyright issues and backdoors, but also in many ways, it is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a landmark legislation that has shaped the course of the Internet and the institution of online safe spaces since 1998.

On Jan. 18, Wednesday, Many Web giants including Wikipedia, Google, Reddit and others will be either blacking out their Web sites or highlighting SOPA and the dangers it poses to Internet freedom.

The anti-piracy bill, if passed, puts any Web site in risk of being shut down permanently if a notice is served to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that the Web site is hosting or linking to any content, which is in violation of copyright and other intellectual property laws.

What is SOPA? How will it impact businesses and Web giants? Who are the SOPA supporters of the bill? Who are the SOPA protesters? Is there an alternative to SOPA? What is the Jan. 18 blackout? Who are participating in the blackout? What can you do to join the anti-SOPA protest? To find out the answers to these questions and more, start the slideshow. And don't forget to leave your comments here if you want to speak out for or against the controversial bill.