Blackout! SOPA protests hit the Web (images)

Harsh criticisms of the Stop Online Piracy Act by Internet companies and organizations turned to a form of direct action today, with high-profile Web sites blacking out portions of--or, in the case of Wikipedia--entire pages. The goal is to underline the message from those companies that SOPA poses a very real threat of Web censorship. (For more details on the pending legislation, see "How SOPA would affect you: FAQ.")

Google's home page, for instance, this morning features a big, black block over the colorful "Google" logo that dominates the page, and a stark message under the search window urges: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" Both the blacked-out logo and the "Tell Congress" line linked out to a page entitled "End Piracy, Not Liberty" with an option for users to sign a petition to Congress.

Wikipedia's English-language pages went completely black at 9 p.m. PT last night, with a splash page saying "the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet." The online encyclopedia's blackout, intended to precede next week's Senate floor vote on the legislation, is scheduled to last 24 hours.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a prominent advocacy group, covers its logo with the message "stop censorship." It, too, urges Web users to take the anti-SOPA fight to Congress.

Amazon.com remains open for business, but if you glance to the right side of the page while you're shopping, you can follow a link to NetCoalition.com. That coalition, which includes Amazon, Google, Yahoo, eBay, IAC, Bloomberg, Expedia, and Wikipedia, "seeks to preserve the vitality of the Internet that exists today--an open and consumer-oriented competitive environment--which inspires global innovation and trade."

The photo-sharing site Flickr is offering a do-it-yourself spin on the blackout. Users can darken their own photos--or other folks'--"for a 24-hour period to deprive the web of the rich content that makes it thrive." Initially, Flickr set a 10-photo limit, then changed that to an unlimited number of photos.

Reflecting its origins in a print publication, Wired.com shows off its layout chops with a dramatic look reminiscent of a document done in by heavy-handed censors.

MetaFilter greets visitors with this splash page targeting SOPA as "misguided legislation."

The Consumer Electronics Association, like Wikipedia, is under a self-imposed 24-hour blackout--aside from this message.

The Tor Project boils the message down to two words: stop censorship. When it comes to SOPA and Tor, there's no small about of irony. The Tor software was created by the U.S. government, and the nonprofit Tor Project is funded in part by federal agencies that hope that it will let Internet users in repressive regimes bypass their country's informational blockades. SOPA could make it illegal to distribute Tor and similar software that might let users circumvent attempts by the U.S. government to block pirate Web sites.

WordPress.org, the group behind the widely used blogging tool, calls out the Protect IP Act as well as its sister bill, SOPA, and offers a video on the legislation and its potential effects.

The name is comical and the site high on hijinks, but when it comes to SOPA, I Can Has Cheezburger gets serious.

Reddit's self-imposed blackout is running 12 hours instead of 24, but strikes the same strong tone about fighting back.

The Web site Boing Boing normally has fun with what's out and about on the Internet. Not today.

The Internet security and domain name services company OpenDNS unfurls a banner that proclaims "Stop Censorship! STOP SOPA!"

On Craigslist, it's the familiar anti-SOPA/PIPA message and exhortation to contact members of Congress. There's also a more vivid postscript: "corporate paymasters, KEEP THOSE CLAMMY HANDS OFF THE INTERNET!"