For those of you who — like myself — learn a lot of what you know from reading articles on Wikipedia, you’re going to have to Google a little bit harder for 24 hours on Wednesday.

The nonprofit “Free Encyclopedia” (which hosts 20 million articles in 283 languages, according to the “Wikipedia” Wikipedia article) announced Monday that it would stage a blackout of its English articles in protest of the proposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate.

The Washington Post defined the bills back in October better than I could (even after trying to summarize the actual bill text):

It would allow the FBI to seek injunctions against foreign Web sites that steal music, films, software and other intellectual property created by U.S. firms. The bill also includes provision that could hold third parties — payment-processing and other partners — responsible for piracy and counterfeiting on other sites, some critics say.

Since Wikipedia articles can be written and edited by anyone worldwide, its founders, authors and supporters believe the legislation poses a threat and provides “new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.”

Wikipedia administrators released a statement Monday announcing their protest, stating: “It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.”

Its co-founder, Jimmy Wales, also said in a statement:

This is an extraordinary action for our community to take — and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world.

According to Google, Wikipedia was the sixth most-visited website on the Web in July 2011, with 410,000,000 unique visitors and 6 billion pageviews (which makes Web journalists like myself who track site statistics very envious).

It is the highest website on the list to not have any advertising, something its founders value, and why you saw those ads at the top of most articles late last year asking for donations.

Addition at 2 p.m.

Daniel Terdiman, a writer at c|net (or CNET.com), points out a way around the blackout — just in case you can’t go another minute without learning about Deaths in 2011 or finding a list of “Glee” episodes.

A group of blind people are suing a paintball park after they were denied entrance and a disbarred lawyer was sentenced to serve a year and a day in prison for tax evasion and other charges. Those stories and more in this week’s legal affairs top 5.

1. Blind people sue paintball park – by Ben Mook

In what their lawyer believes is the first case of its kind in Maryland, a group of blind people are suing a paintball park for refusing to let them play.

Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, two of its instructors and one of its students filed the lawsuit against Route 40 Paintball Park in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Monday. They claim that Route 40 Paintball’s actions violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as the Maryland White Cane Law, a state law that protects people from discrimination based on blindness.

2. Woman trucker wins case against Giant – by Steve Lash

Maryland’s top court has unanimously reinstated a $644,000 award in damages and another $545,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs to a female supermarket-truck driver who was fired after refusing to undergo a medical exam not required of “similarly situated” male drivers and filing a gender discrimination complaint.

The Court of Appeals’ reversed a ruling that Julia M. Taylor, who suffers from a debilitating menstrual condition, had failed as a matter of law to show that Giant Food LLC had acted out of bias.

3. Repeated e-discovery violations can by costly to a client – by Ben Mook

Few cases in Maryland in recent years have highlighted the importance of accounting for emails and other electronic documents during discovery — and the ramifications for not doing so — more than Victor Stanley Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc. et al.

The case, filed in 2006, was an otherwise straightforward trademark and copyright infringement dispute over municipal park fixture designs. Calvert County-based Victor Stanley Inc. prevailed this fall with a verdict for monetary and injunctive relief. Creative Pipe has filed an appeal.

4. Disbarred lawyer Stanley Needleman sentenced for tax evasion – by Daily Record Staff

Former lawyer Stanley Needleman was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison for tax evasion and structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting requirements.

Needleman, 69, also must serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration, pay $543,695 to the IRS and $117,319 to the state for tax losses, and forfeit nearly $500,000. All the money will come from $1.15 million in cash the Drug Enforcement Administration seized in April from two safes in Needleman’s basement.

5. CSA: State must honor witnesses’ rights – by Steve Lash

A Maryland appellate court has criticized Baltimore prosecutors and a judge for ignoring rules designed to protect reluctant witnesses who must be jailed to make sure they appear for trial.

The intermediate Court of Special Appeals said prosecutors and the judge failed to follow the rules before or after jailing Roslyn Broadway to ensure her appearance at a murder trial next month.

Paul E. Schurick was found guilty in the election robocall case this week, and a UMUC professor won a large settlement in a discrimination case. Those stories and more in this week’s legal affairs top 5.

1. Jury finds Schurick guilty on all 4 counts – by Steve Lash

A Baltimore jury convicted Paul E. Schurick on conspiring and attempting to sabotage Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley’s re-election last fall with Election Day 2010 robocalls telling Democrats in the city and Prince George’s County that victory was at hand and they did not have to go to the polls.

Schurick, 55, faces up to 12 years in prison on the four counts. Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill set sentencing for Feb. 16 in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

2. UMUC professor gets $430K settlement in discrimination case – by Danielle Ulman

Maryland’s Board of Estimates approved a $430,000 settlement Wednesday with a man who said his supervisors at the University of Maryland University College discriminated against him because of his heritage.

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“I remember lying in bed on alert late one night as I heard an argument brewing in my parents’ bedroom, only to be shocked by the deafening sound of my mother’s jaw being crushed. I remember watching in horror as my mother’s head lay on the chopping block of our kitchen counter while my father held a large butcher’s knife to her throat, as she cried and begged to be put out of her misery.”

When “Wire” actress and activist Sonja Sohn testified at the Defending Childhood Task Force hearing on Tuesday morning, she didn’t speak long — almost exactly 10 minutes — but she managed to fill in the major parts of her life story.

Sohn’s mother was physically abused by her father and it continued to affect her and her family for years.

She brought a small cushion with her to the hearing and placed it at her lower back as she sat. She remained composed throughout her testimony, which she calmly read off of her Macbook Air.

“When you grow up in a household where domestic abuse is a regular occurrence, you see things that — though you may heal from — you will never forget,” she said.

Watch the full video from her testimony below:

The FBI has released audio excerpts from phone conversations between former Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife, Leslie Johnson.

Jack Johnson

Have you forgotten about the Johnsons already? Perhaps these partial transcripts will “refresh your recollection” as to why these conversations — and this story — made national news almost exactly a year ago.

Here’s s a partial transcript from the first clip.

Leslie Johnson: “What do you want me to do with this money? They are banging! What do you want me to…”

Jack Johnson: “Put it… put it in your panties and walk out of the house.”

LJ: “No! But I mean all this cash, Jack! I got the one from down…”

JJ: “Put it in your panties, Leslie.”

LJ: “Oh my god. Okay.”

Click here to listen to the first clip (mp3)

And here’s a partial transcript from the second clip:

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The family of an inmate who was killed aboard a prison bus was awarded $18.5 million and a Baltimore police detective is being sued by the family of a man he shot in 2009. Those stories and more in this week’s legal affairs top 5.

1. O’Malley gets nominees for Court of Special Appeals – by Steve Lash

The Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission on Wednesday sent Gov. Martin O’Malley the names of five candidates for the Court of Special Appeals vacancy created in January, when Judge Ellen L. Hollander joined the U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The nominees are:

* Andrew H. Baida, a partner at Rosenberg|Martin|Greenberg LLP in Baltimore. Baida teaches appellate advocacy at the state’s two law schools and writes a column, “The Art of Appellate Advocacy,” for The Daily Record.

2. Provision immunizing landlords from lead-paint liability unconstitutional – by Steve Lash

In a victory for lead-poisoning victims, Maryland’s top court Monday unanimously struck down as unconstitutional a statutory provision that immunized landlords from liability if they registered their property with the state environmental agency and offered payments of $17,000 to children at risk of lead poisoning.

The Court of Appeals, in its 7-0 decision, called the immunity provision and $17,000 offer “totally inadequate and unreasonable” to remedy the harm done to children permanently brain damaged due to their ingestion of lead-based paint in a rental property.

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A first-of-its-kind lawsuit over a bedbug infestation was decided in Baltimore this week, and state Sen. Ulysses Currie’s bribery trial continues. Those stories and more in this week’s legal affairs top 5.

1. Hopkins doc has made millions testifying for defense – Andy Marso

When lawyer William C. Hudson learned that State Farm wanted one of his clients to submit to a medical examination by Dr. David W. Buchholz last spring, he protested both the lack of advance notice and the choice of doctor.

Hudson’s client, Melody B. Southard, had been in a car accident with an underinsured motorist and was suing her insurance company in Baltimore City Circuit Court because of persistent headaches that her doctors had linked to the crash.

2. Bedbug suit has a $40K bite – by Danielle Ulman

Kristen Y. Saunders said it took managers of her apartment building 48 days to fumigate her apartment infested with bedbugs, leading to a plaintiff’s verdict in the first case of its type in Baltimore.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Saunders $40,000 in her negligence suit against the building’s owners and operators. The verdict came last week after a three-day trial.

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The fight over the original Baltimore Ravens “Flying B” logo continues, and University of Baltimore’s School of Law is facing its own lawsuit over allegedly providing deceptive postgraduate job numbers. Those stories and more in this week’s legal affairs top 5.

1. ‘Madden’ maker drawn into Ravens’ logo fight – Andy Marso

The designer of the original “Flying B” Ravens logo has filed a motion to add the makers of the ultra-popular Madden NFL 11 video game to his longstanding copyright infringement dispute with the team and the NFL.

Frederick E. Bouchat’s attorney, Howard J. Schulman, said he heard through the grapevine that Electronic Arts Inc. had programmed a “retro” feature into Madden in which the Ravens’ uniforms bear Bouchat’s symbol. Schulman, of Schulman & Kaufman LLC, then verified it by printing out screen shots from the game with the logo in them.

2. Court: Man can sue Iguana Cantina over 2008 beating – by Danielle Ulman

A man who was severely beaten on a ‘college night’ at Baltimore’s Iguana Cantina in 2008 can sue the nightclub for premises liability, Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals held on Monday.

The decision revived James E. Troxel III’s lawsuit, which a lower court had said was a “dram shop” claim that Maryland does not recognize.

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