The “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect-IP Act” (PIPA) will have negative repercussions for search engine marketing and marketing and social media. The internet has shifted the way people communicate, interact, socialize, and conduct business. The world wide web has been a tool for democratic institutions to grow, spread, and flourish around the world. In less than a decade the internet has infiltrated the lives of most people on the planet. Voices that would otherwise be silenced by oppression and coercion have been given an outlet to communicate with people continents away. The internet is a cornerstone of modernity, democracy, and communication. If incursions like the SOPA and PIPA regulations are passed by Congress, it will set a precedent for future governments to chip away at the fundamentals of online freedom.
SOPA and PIPA will permit the U.S. Department of Justice to subpoena or shut down websites and companies for online copyright and property right infringement. The legislation is distrustfully ambiguous and does not outline the protocol to determine guilty and innocent parties. Anyone and everyone who logs on to the world wide web could become a brigand at any moment. Marketing and social media will be under close observation for people sharing “pirated” media. However the online infrastructure was developed so that sharing and the dissemination of information and media could be done with ease. The backbone of the internet is sharing and communication. Marketing and social media have thrived because of how open the internet has been. SOPA and PIPA will turn everyone who uses marketing and social media into a potential law breaker.
Everyone who uses social media shares pictures, articles, photos, videos, and media content in some style. Search engine marketing also promotes the sharing and dissemination of media content. Search engine marketing could practically be shutdown entirely. One person who posts one music video downloaded on Youtube or Google could give the U.S. Department of Justice enough of a reason to subpoena the website and force internet service providers to stop linking to it. SOPA and PIPA bestow upon the U.S. Department of Justice unprecedented powers to track and condemn what Americans do online.
Marketing and social media, search engine marketing, information sharing, communication, and business will all be deterred by SOPA and PIPA. The trepidation about these bills has spurred nationwide protests across America, and a popular movement to counter the bills with petitions, phone calls, letters, and an online “blackout” day. Thousands of websites including Wikipedia shutdown for twenty-four hours earlier this week to exemplify the overreaching effects SOPA and PIPA could have for America’s online community. The creators of SOPA and PIPA claim that this legislation will only target foreign companies and individuals who break American copyright laws online. However there is nothing in the legislation that stops the U.S. Department of Justice from chasing Americans.
Currently the SOPA and PIPA vote has been postponed in Congress. The legislative sponsors seem to be taking seriously the angst American citizens have. Congress has called for further debate before they vote on SOPA or PIPA. The alarming reaction these bills have conjured among Americans is a sign that the bills probably will not pass or ever be voted on in their present form. More people must be brought into this debate for America to successfully tackle the problem of online piracy.
So, do you think you would like to learn more about search engine marketing? Would you like to find out more about marketing and social media? Check us out at fishbat.com to learn more!. This article, How Will SOPA and PIPA Effect Marketing and Social Media? has free reprint rights.
Posted under SEO
This post was written by Paul T. Lotierzo on January 27, 2012
