It’s time for the PR profession to join the opposition to SOPA and PIPA

Earlier today, U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor shelved the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), leading many to think the legislation is dead. It can, however, be ressurrected at any time. Meanwhile, its Senate counterpart, PIPA, is still very much alive even as support for it declines.

Despite the fact that the House won’t vote on the bill, Wikipedia and Reddit are among those that plan to go ahead with site blackouts on Wednesday, January 18, designed to raise awareness of the damage SOPA and PIPA could do.

I haven’t heard of a single public relations agency or association planning to join the blackout or even… Read More »

No, wrapcycle, Etsy’s policy doesn’t violate the First Amendment

I always find it interesting when someone cites the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights—the first 10 amendments to the Constitution—when discussing an action taken by a private organization.

That was the case today in a comment responding to a post by online craft consignment site Etsy, which revised its product policies in response to ongoing criticism aimed at greeting cards sold on the cite that denigrate rape victims and people with Downs syndrome, AIDS and breast cancer. (You can read the full story here.)

The comment, left by someone identifying him or herself as “wrapcycle,” reads…

Not sure the first amendment…

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Trust and transparency take center stage as new law rewards employees for whistleblowing

For some time now, I’ve been advancing the idea that hiring a warm body to fill a vacancy is no longer a viable staffing strategy. Organizations need to hire people they feel they can trust, since trust is the foundation of employee engagement. When arguing against blocking employee access to social media, I point out that it sends the same message to everyone in the organization: “We don’t trust any of you as far as we can throw you.” Why would any employee want to give discretionary effort to a company that has such little respect for its staff?

Still, I’m told repeatedly that hiring trustworthy employees is simply unrealistic.

… Read More »

Libel threat a good reason to moderate comments

Last week I reacted to the notion that moderating blog comments is a fast path to annoying your readers. Comments to the post leaned toward moderation, but several—including some from people I respect deeply—opposed moderation on personal blogs, suggesting it’s up to the blogger to check comments frequently and weed out the spam. By allowing comments to appear instantly, commenters are happy while rapid reactive review of comments will keep the blog free of the unsavory stuff.

Among the reasons to moderate, I included the potential for a comment that libels someone else. Today, while checking the moderation queue on one of my blogs, I… Read More »

A new imperative for corporate lawyers: Don’t make children cry

Legal writing is, almost by definition, cold and impersonal. In the silo’d structure of most organizations, the lawyers perform the tasks expected of them, protecting the organization from risk the way they were taught in law school. The same icy legalese is crafted whether the issue is suing for trademark infringement or finalizing a contract.

In today’s environment of many-to-many engagement, corporate legal departments need to rethink the means by which they deliver some of their messages. At the top of the list is the letter companies send to well-meaning fans of the company who submit product ideas.

During my tenure at Mattel… Read More »

Imagine a web without links

Repent, all ye sinners. The end of the Web is nigh.

Well, okay, that may be a bit extreme. But when you consider that links are the Web’s foundation, a disturbing trend doesn’t bode well at all.

Consider these two news items:

• U.S. appeals court judge Richard Posner wrote last month that expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted material, or to bar linking to copyrighted materials, without the copyright holder’s consent, may be necessary to keep a viafble newspaper industry alive.
• The UK’s Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) is pursuing a plan that would require payments from anyone linking to their member newspapers’… Read More »

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