On this past Friday, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA Act) stalled in congress. This is actually a good thing for the internet, internet marketers, and online businesses. But, it is only a temporary delay in the proceedings regarding this bill. Here is a really good run down summary from SearchEngineLand:
"The delay is to allow more experts to weigh in with opinions and recommendations addressing technical, legal and first amendment issues.
SOPA proponents, including major content providers like the recording and motion picture industry, have argued that the new rules were necessary to combat “foreign” piracy and the sale of illicit goods like counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
SOPA opponents, including internet and tech giants and consumer and legal watchdog groups, say the proposed law is over-reaching, with the potential to “break” the internet and start a worldwide arms race of unprecedented censorship of the web.
If you’re involved with any type of online marketing, you should learn as much as you can about this proposed legislation, as the implications (mostly negative, unless you’re a large content provider or trademark holder) are huge.
Want to know more? Check out What All Marketers Need To Know About SOPA – The Stop Online Piracy Act over on [their] sister site, Marketing Land."Also see a commentary piece from TheWashington Post, some of which is quoted here for more on why the Stop Online Piracy Act just will not work:
". . . SOPA is threatening to touch something far more precious than that — the glorious sprawl of the Internet.
SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a bill that, in the name of preventing online piracy of copyrighted work, creates a horrifyingly large censorship authority for the Internet. Among other things, it requiresservice providers (which have come out opposing the bill) to block access to entire sites if a user on the site is accused of copyright infringement.
There are dozens of reasons this is wrong. The biggest and most pressing is that not only does the bill not do what it sets out to do, it also creates a horrifyingly blunt instrument to censor the Internet."
The SFIMA Board will be looking at this and other legislation closely in 2012 so that we can write to congress and let them know our position on bills that will directly affect our industry and we want to know what South Florida IMA members and local internet marketers and businesses in South Florida feel about these topics so that we can include the general opinion of our members and communities in our statement position. Please let us know what you think.
