The internet is alive with news of the SOPA & PIPA related blackout. This is a quick run down the list of key terms and players.

The blackout is due to run from 5:00 AM GMT to 5:00 AM GMT, Wednesday 18^th to Thursday 19^th January, a full 24 hours.

SOPA

The Stop Online Piracy Act is a ridiculous piece of legally dubious waffle that is either unenforceably vague, or would utterly destroy huge swathes of the internet. It is sites such as Wikipedia and reddit that stand to suffer most from the act, as it could cause enormous sections of their user-generated content to become unlawful overnight.

Image by Christopher Dombres under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

It is currently in a great amount of trouble, as it has been delayed until some “outstanding concerns” can be, uh, remedied. It ain’t dead yet, though!

The special interests and very special senators that support the bill are listed here.

PIPA

PIPA, or the Protect Internet Privacy Act, is a similar law going through the Senate. Interestingly, it is intended to especially strongly target sites originating from outside the U.S. This is clearly supposed to target chancers like the Swedish “Pirate Bay” mob, but makes America appear embarrassingly insular and protectionist online, in a way that no other fully democratic nation is.

PIPA is still very much alive.

Wikipedia

Obviously, Wikipedia is a major player here, and probably the most important – not everyone knows who boingboing.net or reddit are (yes, even now), and we can get amusing photoshops elsewhere if we really do desperately need them. Wikipedia, however, is a vast repository of information that many have come to rely on.

Cory Doctorow

Boingboing.net is home to the apparently visionary author Cory Doctorow, who has predicted events very similar to these (albeit enacted in “real life”) in parts of his insightful novel and polemic, Makers, where real life user-generated contents starts to be targeted by old, outdated institutions that feel threatened.

In the book, the main enemy is Disney; in real life, it appears as though it’s the U.S. government itself.

Other Major Players

Some of the biggest guns, other than Wikipedia, are boingboing.net, Mozilla, reddit and the Cheezburger network. There are also gamer networks, mobilised in part by early and angry coverage throughout mainstream gamer news outlets such as escapistmagazine.com, including Destructoid, Good Old Games and indie game smash hit Minecraft, as well as political sites and comic strips.

There is no limit to getting involved, and the number of “unfiltered” or unconfirmed participants has hit 1800. If you are interested, you can get involved here.

Implications

An online “strike” of this size and on this scale has never been seen before. It could further entrench the U.S. government, through a desire to avoid setting a precedent, it could cause them to fold like a house of cards, we’ll have to wait and see.

If websites do have the power to influence government policy through acts like this, well, I’m glad it was Wikipedia who did it first. I’m doubly glad it was over a cause as worthy as this.

I can’t help but be a little worried about who else could start throwing their weight around, though…

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Yes, in case you hadn’t heard, after a two year absence, I’m going to be back speaking at SMX London Advanced. The session (copied from the agenda website) is:

Link Alchemy: Creative Ways Of Conjuring SEO Gold

Despite all the recent changes in search engine algorithms, links remain the single most important part of an effective search marketing campaign. And to successfully compete, you need to go beyond traditional link building techniques to create natural but scalable campaigns. What tools are available to analyse competitor links? What non-traditional channels, such as .edu links and retweets can be used? Our speakers show you how to reinvigorate your link building campaigns and take them to the next level.

• Moderator: Christine Churchill, President, KeyRelevance
• Q&A Moderator: Martin Macdonald, Head of SEO, OMD UK

Speakers:

• Patrick Altoft, Director of Search, Branded3
• Rob Millard, SEO Consultant, Distilled
• Kelvin Newman, Creative Director, Site Visibility
• Me, Here

I’ll also be co-moderating:

What’s New In Local & Mobile

According to Google, as many as 30% of all search queries have local intent. And according to IDC, more internet-capable mobile devices will be sold this year than computers. In short, local and mobile are both here and huge, and will continue to be an important part of many search marketer’s activities. This session looks at new developments in local search, location services, mobile apps and ads.

• Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence
• Q&A Moderator: Me, Here

Speakers:

• Martijn Beijk, SEO & Web Analytics Consultant, Onetomarket
• Darrin Clement, Founder & CEO, Maponics
• Philippe Huysmans, Director, EMEA Product Management, Mobile Local and Commerce, Microsoft
• David Mihm, Designer + Local Search Marketer, davidmihm.com

It’s an honour to be back speaking to the industry again, and to be back as a participant after an extended period, and I look forward to seeing you all there!