"Imagine a world without free knowledge."

Google's logo in support of several major websites going offline.

The two bills, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, would allow the Justice Department to force American search engines, through federal court, to edit their results for certain search terms.

The legislation is heavily backed by U.S. media companies, who want the the government to crack down on pirated movies and music, which is costing them billions of dollars. But less than 400 miles north of Hollywood, Silicon Valley is striking back with a message of its own.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, said the strike was meant to protest the legislation's "frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world." Visitors to Wikipedia's English-language site and others participating in the strike were met with a page urging them to write to Congress to oppose two proposed bills.

The swelling online opposition persuaded the White House to call over the weekend for lawmakers to remove the legislation's most controversial provision, which would have required U.S. search engines and payment networks to block access to websites focused on pirated materials. Supporters of the legislation say it would target foreign websites trading in stolen intellectual property, including movies and music. Critics say it would unfairly penalize legitimate websites too, such as the online classified ad service Craigslist or the photo sharing service Flickr.

The Motion Picture Association of America came out in support of SOPA Tuesday, saying that, "the potential harm from rogue sites -- exposure to malware, identity theft, unsafe and untested medicines and other counterfeit products, and lost jobs and income for creative workers -- is profound. Too much is at stake for us to allow rogue sites and those who operate them to continue to steal creative works with impunity."

But Wikipedia, the tenth most-read site in the United States, is taking the argument mainstream.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The move to shut the site for a day was designed to make Congress hear a different point of view on the issue, said Mr. Wales. "To date, they've only really heard from professional lobbyists and Hollywood, and haven't heard from people about how they use the Internet and why it should remain the way it is," said Mr. Wales.

But in turning off its site, the nonprofit Wikipedia is also taking up the mantle of a cause that is tied to the business interests of major tech firms. "Our view is that Google is big enough to look out for themselves," said Mr. Wales. "Our interest is really about the fundamental structure of the Internet."

He said he wasn't certain how the bills, if passed, might affect Wikipedia. "We could be barred from linking to websites that are classified as foreign infringing sites, and that raises quite obviously a lot of very deep First Amendment issues."