Yesterday, many sites across the net protested against the much-talked-about Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, by blacking out their site. The most notable, of course, was the Wikipedia blackout, which brought the world’s ability to find out pointless facts to a grinding halt, and stopped thousands of schoolchildren worldwide from being able to do their homework. Fortunately though, and with admirable foresight, Wikipedia still allowed access to a page describing and explaining what, exactly, SOPA is. To summarise, the piece of American legislation that has had the whole tech and web world in an uproar is aimed at protecting copyright holders (ie, film and music labels) from online piracy, by giving greater powers to gain court orders against sites that allow or facilitate copyright infringement. The proposed penalties are pretty hefty, including barring ad networks and payment systems, search engine blocking, and requiring ISPs to block sites entirely.

The problem is that the legislation is way too broad, as its vague and poorly written nature leaves the door open to massive abuses and frivolous usage. It represents a very real threat to the internet as we know it, placing many sites at risk, and opening up the possibility of a fragmented, censored web. And nobody wants that….except maybe the big business and media interests backing the legislation, obviously. You can read more about the impact of the legislation, and also find links to some of the best write-ups of the issues on this Wiki page.

We here at Red or Blue joined in the protest by blacking out our site as well, because anything that affects the web, particular in its capacity as a content distribution and sharing network, is going to have an impact on SEO as well. Especially when you think that there is, if SOPA is passed, a chance that sites can be removed from search rankings, or from the web entirely, if a court order is obtained. But anyway, lets get onto the real meat of this post, the impact SOPA will have on SEO:

Hah, not really. There is a lot to cover, so stay tuned for a fuller update.

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