I think this is the method I plan on using and offering to my customers. It will get the point across and still allow them to function.
<? if(date("Ymd")=="20120118") echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="hxxp//js.sopablackout.org/sopablackout.js"></script>'; ?>
Note: replace hxxp with http.
Preview of an actual page with the overlay: http://www.nitrogenlogic.com/sopaindex.html