When the online information TROVE Wikipedia went dark for 24 hours on Jan.I8 the greatest impact was probably on panicked college students facing deadlines. But Wikipedia’s larger message was clear: none of us should take for granted the freedom and openness that have made the Web such a world-changing resource. Why make that point now? Because Wikipedia and several other major Internet companies fear the internet is facing serious problems from potential government regulation ( government regulation 政府法規). Under intense pressure from movie studios and big music and media companies, the U.S Congress has been moving to create new legal powers to crack down on websites that offer illegal streaming and downloading of movie, music and other copyrighted content.

Two bills in Congress, the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protects intellectual property, would empower courts to make search engines like Google block alleged copyright violators (違反者) from their search result and force advertiser to cut off payments to offending sites. That has unleashed the battle in the long-running war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley over how to balance the copyright issue with Internet Freedom.