WebiMax Contributor, January 16, 2012
The entire SEO community, along with everyone else on the Internet, has been awaiting the outcome of the Protect-IP and SOPA situation. The controversial nature of the two bills have sparked debate that has been ongoing since their proposal and both opponents and supporters continue to wait until the final decision is made to either veto them or pass them into law. In the meantime, any news regarding either Protect-IP or SOPA instantly becomes a hot topic amongst developers and the most recent word on Protect-IP could change one very important aspect of the proposed act.
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Democratic Senator and originator of PIPA, Patrick Leahy, announced that a possible revision to Protect-IP is in the works. The Vermont Senator urged that amendments to the act be considered to ensure that it is more beneficial than it is harmful, not just to Americans, but to the entire Internet's infrastructure, should it pass legislation.
At present, the bill would grant the U.S. Government the ability to order Internet service providers to block URLs for any websites that support, stream or share any form of pirated content. It also gives the Government the power to remove results for such websites on search engines, which has obviously led to much discussion amongst SEO developers.
Opponents of Protect-IP and SOPA include companies like Google and Facebook. Those brands, as well as other detractors of the two proposals, have been publicly outspoken regarding their stance on the bills. Although the Senate has yet to either definitively pass or veto Protect-IP, the proposition to revise it is certainly big news. PIPA could potentially have lasting effects on SEOs and the Internet as a whole if it becomes law. Any possible changes to the bill are surely going to give the SEO community and the rest of the Internet something important to talk about as it prepares to go before the Senate in the near future.
