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On Wednesday, January 18th, a lot of high-profile websites including Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit have protested against SOPA and PIPA, two laws which would seriously threaten the freedom of the internet. After SOPA voting has been delayed after the White House criticized the current from of the bill, PIPA voting has also been delayed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Harry Reid said that the anti SOPA and PIPA protests were enough to convince the senators from delaying the voting that was scheduled to occur next Tuesday, on January 24th. The Protect IP Act is a bill which has been created to put an end to intellectual property theft and online threats, however, it was written in a way which would allow the United States to shut down a website without warning for housing copyright infringement material.

The bill required about 60 votes from the senators, however, most of the elected reps have dropped their support after the January 18th protests. Before Wednesday, most of the senators are SOPA and PIPA supporters, while some of them were even co-sponsors. After the PIPA voting has been delayed, Senator Reid said that they will have to work harder at this law.

Wikipedia has decided to shut down its website for 24 hours on Wednesday in order to protest against SOPA and PIPA, following the example set by Reddit which has been the first to announce that it will go offline for 12 hours on January 18th. Google has posted a censored logo along with a link that invited users to sign a petition to stop both SOPA and PIPA.

According to the search giant, more than 7 million people have signed the petition since the page went online.

SOPA and PIPA have been met with criticism by the Obama Administration who said no law which puts the freedom of speech in danger will pass in the US, while admitting that online piracy needs to be stopped one way or another.

Several senators even expressed their concern with SOPA and PIPA during a presidential debate saying that there are several copyright infringement laws in the US which can be used by the companies to protect their intellectual property. A good example is Megaupload.com which has been shut down last night by the FBI and Department of Justice, while the website’s owners have been charged with conspiracy.

Only time will tell whether the US will adopt any “upgraded” versions of SOPA or PIPA, however, it’s certain that for the time being the “free and open” internet is safe.