☛ Vimeo: “PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet” by Kirby Ferguson and Fight for the Future, uploaded on October 25th, 2011. Licensed under (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

From the Fight for the Future website:

The video above discusses the Senate version of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In the Senate the bill is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

The video was produced by Kirby Ferguson whom some may already know for his series “Everything is a Remix”. Currently, his official website redirect to the “SOPA Strike” website (his Vimeo profile is still accessible). It does so to raise awareness about negative effects the “Stop Online Piracy Act” bill could have if it was to be adopted by the United States House of Representatives. One can read the official documents associated with this bill proposal over at The Library of Congress website: Bill Text H.R.3261.IH
Kirby Ferguson is not the only one to be “on strike” today (for 24 hours). A lot of website joined the “Strike Against SOPA & PIPA” movement in an effort to convince House Representatives to vote against the bill on January 24th, 2012: see for example Wikipedia and Wired (below).
From The New York Times:

Wikipedia is the latest Web site to decide to shut on Wednesday in protest against the two Congressional bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act, often called SOPA, and the Protect IP Act, which is often called PIPA. The bills have attracted fierce opposition from many corners of the technology industry. Opponents say several of the provisions in the legislation, including those that may force search engines and Internet service providers to block access to Web sites that offer or link to copyrighted material, would stifle innovation, enable censorship and tamper with the livelihood of businesses on the Internet. (“Wikipedia to Go Dark on Wednesday to Protest Bills on Web Piracy” by Jenna Wortham, January 16, 2012).

A couple of days ago The White House issued a statement against the SOPA initiative:

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.

Many observers now believe the SOPA bill will likely be rejected on January 24th. See for example The Atlantic: “Internet Rejoices: SOPA Is at Death’s Door” by Rebecca J. Rosen, January 17, 2012.
The title is a little bit misleading. The SOPA will not simply vanished but will most probably be put on hold pending further modifications. It is not the first attempt of this kind nor will it be the last. And it’s far from being an initiative limited to the United States: France has the Hadopi law, Spain the Sinde Law and the United-Kingdom has the Digital Economy Act. Josette Garcia, the PR / Marketing Manager for O’Reilly in the UK, recently wrote an interesting post compiling relevant information about all those: “SOPA, PIPA, Hadopi, DEA, ACTA, Sinde and it goes on” (January 16, 2012).
Finally, for those who thinks this is boring, serious stuff, I suggest learning about it through the perspective of The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman: visit his protest page.