Wednesday is the official day of protest over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill and a growing number of Web sites will participate.

But gaming site RedstoneHost couldn't wait. It started the party by "blacking out" its Web page Tuesday and replacing it with an editorial about why SOPA is dangerous and needs to be stopped.

At first the day was all about going on strike, where sites would take themselves offline in protest. Sites including Reddit and Wikipedia have vowed to "go dark."

The RedstoneHost blackout is limp-wristed at best. The site is a Reddit-funded startup that hosts servers for the multiplayer online game Minecraft. It is growing quickly, and in the last six months has fired up over 3,500 servers, supporting thousands of gamers. But it didn't actually take its servers offline. It only changed out its home page to display its anti-SOPA message. Will its customers even notice? Doubtful.

Confirmed participants include Google, WordPress, TwitPic and others. With RedstoneHost as an example, it's unclear how much any of these participants will do in protest, beyond posting anti-SOPA rants or petitions.

Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo is having none of it. He called the blackouts silly, according to a story in the Guardian.



"That's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish," Costolo replied.

SOPA may be one lame piece of legislation and tomorrow will tell if the protests against it will be equally lame.