Thanks to the efforts of internet-based companies to get the word out, last week both SOPA and PIPA were stalled in Congress. But the attempts to limit internet freedoms aren’t going to go away.
The implications of this type of legislation go far beyond a battle between Google and Time-Warner. They are an all out attack on your marketing plan and your most powerful communications tools. The old guard don’t want to innovate. They would rather attack your ability to connect meaningfully with your audience.
The internet is in danger
As music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz brought to my attention in a recent newsletter, this legislation threatens the very fabric of the current and future media landscape. If you can, take 14 minutes and watch this TED video (if you can’t, just continue reading below):
The essence of what Clay says is that this legislation would put the burden of policing content and copyright on the sites that host and allow sharing. It would also create a situation where the presumption of innocence would be replaced by a presumption of guilt. This would, in effect, mean that at the very threat of copyright infringement, Google would have to make that content unavailable.
But online distribution and search platforms would also have to actively police their content or else be in collusion with the infringing parties. This might not sound like so bad of a thing, until you look at how companies are trying to protect copyrights now. They robotically send takedown notices whenever something close to their copyright is mentioned.
Think about the way the NFL says no accounts of their game are allowed in each broadcast. Your average football discussion board, in this view, could be infringing on a game copyright. They could block that domain from search as well as hold Google responsible for helping you find a place to chat about your favorite team.
Shutting it down
This would make the cost of policing copyright so high online that search engines and social media sites would be prohibitively expensive to run in any way close to how things are run now.
In other words, big media companies are trying to get the media landscape to revert to the 1970s. Is that what your brand wants or needs?
A Huge World Of Opportunities
Right now online, every brand has an opportunity to be a publisher and a media company. You have direct access to your consumers. You can tell your authentic brand stories and share them with your customer base and they can share that information with their friends.
As challenging as it is to figure out how to do that from year to year, would you really want to give that power up?
If Google or Facebook are forced by SOPA-like legislation to be the internet copyright police, there is every chance that they’ll stop being in the business of helping your customers find your great content. Even if someone were to “infringe” in the comments of your blog, you could be in violation.
The internet is your friend
I like the internet. It helps us help your brand connect with consumers in deep and exciting ways. It is a wellspring of creativity that breaks down walls between brands and consumers and drives user-focused innovation. We need to find ways to work with user behavior, not try to paternalistically control it.
Don’t follow the old media conglomerates in their attempts to take away your power and your voice. They used to own the path to your consumer. Now you do. Don’t give it back to them by passively letting legislation like this sneak back into Congress (as it already is).
Speak up. Your voice and your dollars count just as much as theirs do.
