SOPA is a bill currently being discussed in the House of Representatives. It's aimed at providing law enforcement and judicial officials with tools to fight and punish piracy and copyright infringement.

While the agenda may be altruistic, the language of the bill and the restrictions it places on website operators pose some significant hurdles that could end up censoring the Internet in many ways.

As Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Internet giants said in a joint letter to the Senate, “the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.”

How will this affect you as a business owner or professional?

Think about your blog or social media channels. If you share an article from an industry resource, you could be guilty of violating SOPA and your website could be blocked. There are many other implications. Mashable’s Chris Heald wrote a piece analyzing the language of the bill, translating it into simple context.

Read the bill in its entirety and decide how it might affect you as a marketer and as a consumer of online content.