PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Beginning at midnight and all day Wednesday, an Internet black-out is going to shut down access to some important websites like Wikipedia.

“It’s a protest movement,” says Carnegie Mellon University Professor Ari Lightman.

Lightman says the protest is aimed at stopping anti-piracy legislation being considered in Congress.

“You have the folks who are producing content and the folks who are distributing content and they are butting heads,” he said.

Artists and content designers say too much is being stolen or pirated online, but distributors worry they will be blamed and the public denied access.

Websites like Wikipedia, Reddit and Mozilla have joined the protest, but they’re hardly alone.

Like Wikipedia, WordPress is a very popular website. In one day, WordPress had interaction with 375,000 bloggers, 880,000 roughly new posts, 520,000 comments and 195 million words.

Lightman says this selected Internet blackout will be felt.

Even before the protest has begun, it’s having an impact in Washington.

The White House has said it will not support the bill as currently written, and the congressional committee involved has said this anti-piracy law will have to be redrafted again.

What that final version looks like may well depend on the protest on Wednesday.

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