You’ve undoubtedly encountered at least one website today that’s participating in the huge protest against both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Sites including Wikipedia, Reddit, and Fark all went “dark” this morning.

But what are SOPA and PIPA, you ask? And why are they bad? Reddit broke the whole thing down in the simplest possible terms on their blog. The article is a must-read.