I hate the concept behind SOPA and PIPA and admit that without internet I would lose access to a lot of pleasures. But that's all they are, pleasures. My life doesn't depend on them. So maybe it's better to simply inconvenience me rather than creating a situation where I realise how little I really need these services.

Back in the day, people knew how to protest. Rosa Parks didn't sit on the bus for 30-minutes to screw with the driver and then leave. She sat there until they had to drag her out kicking and screaming.

What better way to raise awareness than by making vital websites inaccessible? The problem with momentary protests with few consequences is that people get riled up but once the awareness subsides, they can slip the bill through some backdoor channel because they think it's already been defeated.

"Taking down their sites and putting them offline is counterproductive because that's what would happen if SOPA or PIPA were to pass."

That's precisely the point. I thought the point was to get people to understand the severity of this issue?

Taking down their sites and putting them offline is counterproductive because that's what would happen if SOPA or PIPA were to pass. That's what they want to avoid. Simply taking their sites down would do nothing at all, not even raise awareness.

I also disagree with your absurd statement that people are opposing SOPA because it's "trendy". Do you know anything about this bill? It could shut down YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, tons of websites that exist to spread creativity and user-submitted content. And I personally don't want to go to jail because I sing cover songs on YouTube. Plus, you're kind of contradicting yourself there, sweetheart. "People don't really know what it means or stands for"? That's the whole point of the blackouts! To raise awareness and to get people informed.

Facebook was one that claimed they would exist in the blackout – still seeing no sign of that – yet what is 24 hours really going to do to the Facebook community at large, except send some of those die-hard updaters into withdrawal shock?

All of these sites should have made every bit of their content inaccessible until – as you said – something more permanent was done. The shit storm gets people moving in a very angry, very effective way that scares the living daylights out of the government.

It means very little that politicians are pulling their support. They'll just bide their time until everyone isn't looking and slip their goals through then.

Wikipedia, there was a work around to access the content. I think I even got some pages from Google search without doing that work around. Other pages, just disable javascript. Bam.

These shitty efforts really taught nothing to anyone. "Oh, one day without this site… Oh wait, I can just push a little button at the bottom and get to the site. Oh, okay. HAH I beat you SOPA." Then when/if the bill passes "Heeeey, where is that little button?! WHAT? THAT SOPA THING WAS FOR REAL?!?!"

If they really wanted to make an impact, they needed to take down their sites. OFFLINE. See ya. Bye bye. No more. Make people feel what it would really be like. It seems like now, people are just opposing SOPA because it's "trendy". People don't really know what it means or stands for, but EVERY ONE IS DOING IT!

Here, this link will keep you up-to-date with a lot of whats going on with the protests, demonstrations, who has what to say on what and what not.