YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Between midnight January 17th and midnight January 18th you won't be able to access Wikipedia's English site.

It's one of several online communities planning to go dark to protest proposed anti-piracy laws. Stop Online Piracy Act, or "SOPA," as well as the Protect Intellectual Property Act are being considered by Congress and mainly supported by the film and music industry.

"The goal is to try to limit, if not try to put an outright stop to, some of the Internet copyright piracy that's going on especially via international websites," explained Kent State University Professor of Journalism Mark Goodman.

Copyright holders would be able to report piracy to law enforcement and get websites shut down, which opponents say violates due process.

"It's pretty draconian," Goodman said. "It's pretty extreme in that it will actually allow someone to stop them from linking to that site with very little evidence presented."

The most controversial part of the law would cut off these websites from U.S. users, which critics call an attack on free speech.

"You don't like someone's message, you disagree with them politically, accuse them of being a rogue pirate site and get them taken down," said Duke University Law Professor James Boyle.

In a White House blog, federal technology and cyber security officials say that while they believe online piracy is a serious problem, they oppose the proposals. "We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet. Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small."

Some journalists also disagree with the proposed law. The American Society of News Editors issued a letter calling the laws "onerous," saying SOPA "would violate the constitutional rights of free speech and due process, and stifle innovation in the news business."

For some opponents, censoring websites sounds too familiar. "Some of the people who were supporting these bills were arguing that the technology would work and they say, 'The technology would work because we've seen China and other repressive countries use technology like this to shut down their dissidence, so we know it would work,'" recalled Boyle. "Is this really the example we want to be implementing?"

Some worry about blacking out any part of the Internet.

"One of the good and bad things about the Internet has been thus far is that it doesn't selectively choose what we as users of it have access to- we have access to everything," explained Goodman. "That would change if this law were to be enacted."

Many expect the law to fail or to be amended to exclude the more controversial components.