A co-ordinated protest in opposition to two proposed anti-piracy laws in the US – the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) – has seen many high-profile websites “go dark” for the day.

Users of Google on Firefox were greeted with this page:

Google’s US homepage covered over its logo while directing its users to more information about the proposed bills.

Social news recommendation site Reddit has been among the most vocal of opponents to the bill. Its entire site was disabled in favour of this message and video.

Users of photo-sharing site Flickr have been invited to darken their photos in a “symbolic gesture” of opposition.

Technology magazine Wired protested with this striking homepage while urging readers to sign a petition against the proposals.

WordPress.com, the massively popular blogging site, “censored” posts on its homepage.

On the company’s developer site, WordPress.org, a range of tools was offered to enable bloggers to join in with the protest.

Perhaps the most high-profile of darkened sites is Wikipedia. Founder Jimmy Wales told the BBC that “innovations like Wikipedia would become very difficult” if the bills were passed.

Facebook has not joined the protest – but has posted an in-depth page putting across its stance. It argued that Sopa was “not the right solution to this problem”.

In a lengthy blogpost, Greenpeace argued that Sopa could even extend to hindering instances of activism where brands were mimicked.

In its understated message, online magazine Boing Boing said that Pipa would “certainly kill us forever”.

“Nopa!” said online game site Minecraft, which closed its doors for the day.

Supporters of Sopa and Pipa have described Wednesday’s action as little more than a publicity stunt.

(BBC News)

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