There is a controversial antipiracy bill currently being debated in the Congress, called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) - and Wikipedia has decided to join several other groups to protest against it.

As a mark of its protest, Wikipedia founder has indicated that the popular website's English version will be off the hook for 24 hours. Other sites in the US that have announced similar protests include news aggregator Reddit and the Cheezburger Network, one of the world's top online humour publishers.

A report on News.com says: "The bills [SOPA and Protect IP, its Senate sister] are heavily supported by a wide group of copyright owners, including the big record companies and Hollywood film studios. Copyright owners charge that online piracy has damaged their businesses and costs workers their jobs. However, Web companies and human rights groups have asserted that if the bills became law, they would rob the Web of free speech and damage the health of the Internet."

The raging debate concerning copyright infringement and freedom of speech continues unabated...