It seems that the online world is not a big fan of the anti-piracy laws in the US, as Wikipedia has decided start a boycott and shut its services for a day.

Both the Stop Online Piracy Act (also known as SOPA) as well as the Protect IP Act (abbreviated PIPA) have left online communities enraged as their policies included permitting to block foreign websites which allegedly linked to copyright infringing content.

According to those who were not impressed with the upcoming legislations, the US Government has been heavily influenced by the music and film industry spokespeople and activists whose views were somewhat partial.

Wikipedia has voiced its disapproval of the pending anti-piracy laws by announcing a global shut down of its English-language page. Bi, or indeed multi-lingual individuals can breathe out with ease.

The Wiki-lights-off event will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, the 18th of January.

Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation executive director, stated on the website that:

"In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticised for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position.

"That's a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandise them. But although Wikipedia's articles are neutral, its existence is not."

Ms Gardner said that the Wiki team considered the fact that a lot of representatives of the US government were not in favour of the legislations but confirmed that the protest would go ahead regardless.

"The reality is that we don't think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active."

While BoingBoing and Reddit nodded while Twitter shook its head in disagreement, saying it would be "silly" for the site to stop operating.