A Symbolic SOPA Protest Takedown

Most techy people are aware of SOPA and it's implications. Some have different ways of trying to kill the legislation and expose the numbers behind the support. A few large names have done things like publicly leave GoDaddy because of GoDaddy's support for internet censorship. Other sites like Amazon, Yahoo and Google are talking about going blank for a day with a message to visitors to contact their Senators.

This is all well and good, but why don't we all do the same with sites we have administration and political authority over? I'm not talking about a site you manage for work, where the employer has the political control. I'm talking about blogs, forums, wikis etc. Individually it's a drop in the ocean that won't be noticed by many people. Collectively it will still be a drop in the ocean but it will amplify the message. When people find Google, Amazon and Yahoo down, along with Wikipedia, then sporadiaclly throughout the day as they find a link, only to find it's down too.

If there is a coordinated date for this protest, I will join in with this site and Unseen Studio. I have another site in the making but it doesn't really count when it will still be under construction tucked behind the sanctuary moon of Endor and nobody knows about it yet.

With web software it's a maintenance feature, to put the site into some form of maintenance mode which prevents users from signing in and modifying the database with new posts or comments while you update. This is how I will do it. You can put your message in there, visitors will see that message instead of the site.

Feel free to make your message funny, sarcastic or whatever expresses "you" or "your site". Right now I'm pondering a sorta Tupac "Hit Em Up" style message like:

Fuck the RIAA
Fuck the MPAA
Fuck the technically illiterate Luddites and their puppet masters in the recording industry
Fuck the parasites in suits who leech off both ends of the creative chain, and pretend to be on their side
Fuck the people who can't adapt to the times and want to break the future for the rest of us
Fuck the hypocrites who champion censorship for profit
And if you're down with these asshats; then fuck you too.

I am not as poetic or lyrical as Tupac, I may have to work on it a little. Perhaps a more direct Rage Against The Machine "Killing In The Name" style would be more apt.

FUCK YOU, I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!