<i>Sites go dark to protest anti-piracy law</i>

Thousands of internet sites yesterday took part in a "blackout" protest against anti-piracy laws being discussed by US lawmakers.
The Wikipedia encyclopedia and blogging service WordPress are among the highest profile pages to remove material.
Google is showing solidarity by placing a black box over its logo when US-based users visit its site.
Visitors to Wikipedia's English-language site are greeted by a dark page with white text that says: "Imagine a world without free knowledge... The US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia."
If users try to access its other pages via search sites, the text briefly flashes up before being replaced by the protest page. However, people have been sharing workarounds to disable the redirect.
WordPress's homepage displays a video which claims that Sopa "breaks the internet" and asks users to add their name to a petition asking Congress to stop the bill.
"The authors of the legislation don't seem to really understand how the internet works," the site's co-founder, Matt Mullenweg told the BBC.
Across the globe, several Pirate Party sites have been taken offline. The political parties - which advocate reform of copyright laws - took the action in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, Canada and elsewhere.
The US news website Politico estimated that 7,000 sites were involved by early Wednesday morning.