The protest against the anti-piracy bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and The Property IP Act (PIPA) that took place last Wednesday caught many students off guard when they visited their usual search engines only to find black outs.

Over 75,000 Web sites participated in the protest, including Wikipedia, Reddit, Newsboiler, BoingBoing, WordPress and Mozilla. When these sites went offline as part of the overall plan of the protest, many people, including college students who use these sources everyday, were forced to find out more about the possible acts and their effects if they are passed. Previously, some students had heard of SOPA and PIPA, but others did not have a clue what they were or what they meant for college students.

Wikipedia says that 162 million people viewed the blackout-landing page, and Google later confirmed that 4.5 million people signed the company’s petition to protest both bills. Twitter also reported over 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets between midnight and 4 p.m. EST that same day.

According to the White House, a combined 103, 785 people signed a petition to kill the SOPA bill alone. On Friday, both SOPA and PIPA were tabled after the bills lost a majority of their original Congressional backers.

However, being tabled does not mean that they cannot come back up for future discussion.

What could this mean for college students?

SOPA and PIPA, if passed, could put a quick end to what most college students refer to as their “best friend,” the Internet. Anyone using the Internet would be under scrutiny for possible copyright infringement.

There would be a danger to blogs reviewing the latest TV episodes. Wikipedia would possibly shut down as a resource for college students. Students would face penalties for downloading music, books, movies or other copyrighted materials. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and other social networking sites would have to monitor every single link and upload posted by users, or they could be sued themselves for piracy.

Without most of these sites, the social and academic life of college students would be significantly impeded.

The Internet would become a monopoly controlled by the government. The acts leave open the possibility of complete censorship if passed as they are currently written.

This is why students need to pay attention to their government. If people had continued to be complacent, these laws would have taken away our First Admendment rights without protest.