January 18: Blackout the Web for SOPA

Using WordPress to blog, to publish, to communicate things online that once upon a time would have been relegated to an unread private journal (or simply remained unspoken, uncreated, unshared) makes you a part of one of the biggest changes in modern history: the democratization of publishing and the independent web. Every time you click Publish, you are a part of that change…

via WordPress › Help Stop SOPA/PIPA.

If you host your site here on WordPress.com, here are two three ways you can include your site in the blackout protest against SOPA/PIPA.

First, you can add the black “STOP SOPA” ribbon that you see in the upper right corner of this site to your website by copying and pasting this code into an unnamed text widget:

<a target='_blank' class='stop-sopa-ribbon' href='http://americancensorship.org/'><img src='[image URL]' alt='Stop SOPA' style='position:fixed;top:0;right:0;z-index:100000;cursor:pointer;' /></a>

where ‘[image URL]‘ is the location of this file that you download to your computer and upload to your site’s Media Library. (hat tip to Macmanx)

Secondly, if you wish, you can use an overlay to “blackout” your site for the day, by copying and pasting this code into an unnamed text widget:

<div align="center" style="position:fixed;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;right:0;background-color:#000;-moz-opacity:0.8;opacity:.80;filter:alpha(opacity=80);text-align:center;font-size:800%;font-weight:bold;padding-top:300px;"><a style="color:#fff;" href="http://americancensorship.org/" target="_blank">Stop SOPA</a></div>

(hat tip to Panos)

Don’t forget to tag your post SOPA.

UPDATE: Third-WordPress.com officially enters the protest with special settings you can enable on your WordPress.com blog. You can display a black “Stop Censorship” ribbon until January 24th, as well as choosing to completely or partially black out your site on January 18th. Make your voice heard and join the protest.

Beyond the visual protest, the most important action you can take if you are an American citizen is to contact your State Representative and Senator and tell them why Online Piracy is not the problem. Google has prepared an excellent website explaining the issues.

Other resources:

via Lorelle on WordPress: January 18: Join Reddit in a National Blackout Day of Protest Against SOPA

via ZDNet: Google to protest SOPA, alongside Wikipedia, Reddit, others

via timethief:  House Kills SOPA – Denver Computers | Examiner.com

via PandoDaily: CloudFlare Gives Sites a “Less Foolish” Way to Fight SOPA, PIPA [Updated]