This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, January 18th, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Wikipedia has gone dark to clarify its opposition to online censorship.

It is perhaps the highest profile statement yet in a fight over two pieces of so-called

anti-piracy legislation known as SOPA and Protect IP.

Julian Sanchez, research fellow at the Cato Institute,

provides an update.

Some of the most popular websites on the internet

are blacked out in protest over pending legislation

aimed at fighting online piracy that opponents argue could

seriously censor or damage the internet.

We're hearing reports that the legislation is on the ropes if

not dead, but as every good horror movie viewer knows, it's always dangerous to declare that

too soon.

Lamar Smith, who has sponsored the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives,

has announced his plans to bring that back to markup in February,

and Harry Reed is still moving forward with a

cloture vote on the Senate version the Protect IP Act on the 24th of January.

On both sides the most control provision of these legislations a DNS blocking

provision which is in essence a mandatory China style internet firewall has actually caused some of its supporters to backpedal.

So we've heard rumors that they're willing to at least remove that for further study,

but Hollywood and the recording industry have thrown so much money

...