The five best anti-SOPA protests

Or, at the least, it's the day of the SOPA protests. As an example of political mobilization —and a new form of political mobilization at that — the anti-SOPA campaign is likely to enter the organizing textbooks. Saul Alinsky could never have seen this coming. As an example of the power and prevalence that these Web sites have in our lives, the anti-SOPA blackouts are a bit unsettling. SOPA might be a particularly noxious piece of legislation, but the future will bring bills that Internet giants don't like, yet might actually be good for consumers. Will they be able to resist mobilizing against those, too? Still, as an example of the creativity that shines across the Internet, the anti-SOPA protests are, well, sort of awesome. Here are five of the best:

1) Wired.com, where the homepage is redacted, at least until you mouse over the content;

2) Wikipedia.com, where you get to see the article you want for a flash, but are quickly pushed to an ominous, black page with an explanation of the protest and a tool for contacting your representative;

3) Greenpeace.org, where the Internet has gone dark and your mouse acts as a spotlight;

4) Mashable.com, where the front page looks almost normal, but the content is all about SOPA, including 'This is the Internet After SOPA [PICS]";

5) Google.com, where they've blacked-out the Google logo in a way that sustains the site's basic functionality—so they're not misusing their power too much— but makes their point very, very clear.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-five-best-anti-sopa-protests/2011/08/25/gIQAMVez7P_blog.html

One of my regular haunts is the Ludwig von Mises Institute and their entire site is given the SOPA treatment, allowing the reader to toggle on and off the redactions. If this bill passes, expect the ability to have access to information severely curtailed.