SOPA | PIPA What you need to know about these regulations

Thanks to Chris Boggs, President of SEMPO, for thinking this was important enough to share.

Based on the content in the now on hold SOPA legislation, we have received a letter from SEMPO, just to keep the body of search professionals up to date with what the organization's stance is.

Our members are intimately aware of the value of intellectual property. The mantra of most search marketers substantiates this: “Content is king.” Our members spend their days creating unique content for their clients so that consumers can better find and understand the clients’ products and services – and therefore be more likely to purchase them. We don’t like it when our content is duplicated or plagiarized either. It undermines our effectiveness. However, we find that we have all the laws and legal resources we need to fight IP theft right now. What SOPA seeks is not to target the perpetrators of IP theft or piracy, rather to impose upon innocent companies – companies that compose the Internet as a medium – a mandate to become policemen and lawyers, enforced with sanctions or jail time.

I believe these are very true words about SOPA, and would encourage those interested to view this page at SEMPO's website.

PIPA and SOPA in my opinion

I am amazed at the outcry of feedback from many of godaddy's clients and I am also glad they changed their position on this issue. I hope godaddy.com doesn't decide to flip/flop like those who use government policy and issues to make substantial amounts of cash. I mean don't get me wrong, it's a business and business' goal is to make money. I am truly amazed at the lack of leadership by the American people in most situations(and as a public servant I see a lot of it at times), however, when it comes to the right to free speech and expression the people spoke very loudly, particularly to godaddy.com and to the members of the senate, eventually helping to put this bill some place other than the senate floor. This could not have been done without the leadership of organizations like SEMPO, Wiki, and actually all web based business people. It is my personal opinion that this, and these types of, bills would go away once the corruption that is currently dragging this country into the gutter goes away. What I am talking about is what politicians do after they get out of politics, lobbying...but that is another story completely. The fact this bill is no longer in play is a huge personal victory for AMERICANS, and sadly most of them will never even understand what it means.

Besides, it sure as hell wouldn't stop those willing to steal from stealing anyway.

Thanks Chris, I appreciate your work. As for those who want more information I am glad to discuss the knowledge that I have of SOPA | PIPA, and what the implications are for every day people, publishers, marketers, and city/state officials. Email me, and I will return contact as soon as I am able.