It amazes me how many commenters here seem to be missing the point. The point is not to take these sites offline in a kind of "do what we want or you can't have our services" move, but to bring the issue to the attention of everyone who is unaware that this may affect them. These sites have the eyes of millions of americans who are completely unaware of the SOPA threat and turning the sites off for a day, or even showing a "stop censorship" notice will spread the awareness that previously was missing.
Do I think that SOPA and PIPA (please don't forget about mentioning PIPA - Google, Facebook, etc!) are so bad that a complete blackout would be appropriate? Yes, I do.
But I also think that a call to action is even more important, so hopefully they don't just go offline, but present the visitors with an overlay or a widget or something to call their representatives, and with some clear explanation in layman terms of what SOPA and PIPA do.
"If these companies were to take this route, all of these sites would go completely dark save for a message of opposition to SOPA censorship and instructions on how to contact your local representative."
Exactly. Basically everyone else in my entire family has no clue about SOPA, or if they've heard of it, what it really could mean for sites they visit every day.
If web giants -- those that are used most by those unaware or uneducated about SOPA -- were to post a page about SOPA in place of their services, people would have no choice but to take notice and learn what "this SOPA" is all about.
Maybe, but there's a big difference in hearing the "geek in the family" talking about yet another tech subject without really hearing about it anywhere else, vs. visiting a web site only to find it taken down and replaced with a message about SOPA.
My (and many people's) individual words will not have near the impact that seeing giant organizations cooperatively taking action -- by giving up a day's worth of business -- in opposition to something.
That's not to say that we shouldn't try to educate others. But something like this will go so much further -- it will hit deeper and broader.
Very likely that they already explained to their relatives after bringing it up.
I even heard that people in IT have said that other people they work with have no idea about the ramifications of SOPA and many other anti-Internet bills.
