Today many sites and online communities are protesting the Protect IP Act and will be down. Wikipedia and WordPress.org have shut down or gone “black” so we can sample what censorship gone wild would feel like.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
I have always been a big advocate for protecting intellectual property. But there are tools online already in place you can use. Facebook is VERY responsive if you have an issue with a trademark infringement. And by following some basic branding and copyright best practices online, you can avoid “confusion” simply by clearly differentiating who you are and what you do as a business or as an individual.
Heck, Google by design helps clarify content by filtering “duplication” in search results, assigning ranking and ownership based on how you tag/link your site. It is important not to confuse referencing, sharing content and ideas with the pirates who take credit and/or steal profits from a business. White hat users and websites, who only build awareness of content and ideas should not be punished and lost in regulations. This would only destroy the heart and soul of the internet – curing copyright infringements by killing the web.
Learn more at http://sopastrike.com/strike/
