This past week, everyone from the NY Times and the Washington Post to the GOP presidential candidates has debated the controversy surrounding two proposed bills that, if passed, would fundamentally and dramatically change the current Internet landscape. The “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect IP Act” (PIPA), two pieces of legislation moving through the House and Senate, respectively, would create new legal powers to give American companies the ability to fight back against the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the web.
This week, several prominent sites like Wikipedia, Google, and Wired staged a virtual protest of the proposed bills through simple blackouts or, in some cases, innovative anti-censorship messages. And while voting on both SOPA and PIPA has been postponed indefinitely, the alarm has been sounded and started a discussion that begs the question: Is there a way to fight Internet piracy without encouraging censorship? And for those of us in the PR industry, how will later versions of SOPA and PIPA, sure to be introduced in the near future, affect efforts to maximize our clients’ brand awareness through tactics like social media campaigns?
For more on how these anti-piracy efforts may affect our industry, check out this article by Shel Holtz, communications expert and LinkedIn contributor.