Nissan to invest £250m in Sunderland

Japanese car giant Nissan has released a statement announcing their intentions to invest £250m in a factory in Sunderland, promising to create "hundreds of jobs" in the area.

Renewable Energy - The future?

It has been said that the energy debate in Government threatens to tear the coalition apart and that the World Bank has been issuing grave concerns over climate change and coal crunching energy providers. Renewable energy is getting more and more popular these days with both domestic and corporate entities opting in. There seems to be, however, a group of billionaire boys club members who are aggressively taking on the Renewable Energy sector.

Opus Energy award £25,000 to Novice Hurdle Winner

Opus Energy, the UK's leader in business energy, sent out a press release this week congratulating a trio of horse whisperers for winning at their Grade 2 Opus Energy Novice Hurdle. Paul Nicholls, who trained the winning steed Dodging Bullets, the rider Ruby Walsh and its breeder Frankie Dettori were all beaming with joy at their success.

Ex Boss of Kettle Chips repays Bonus

Michael Mendes, suspended in February as chief executive of Diamond Foods, has agreed to repay two years’ worth of bonuses after an accounting scandal was exposed.

An investigation discovered a number of irregularities that cause the firm to restate its 2010 & 2011 finances.

Mendes left the firm with no severance pay and will be paying back $2.7m of bonuses and 6,665 of company shares.

TopShop Tycoon says “Stop Moaning”

Sir Phillip Green, owner of the High Street giant Arcadia Group, has spoken out against fellow UK retailers urging them to stop their moaning about the local economic climate and to just get on with it. After Arcadia reported flat sales for last year, Green said

Spare cash? Invest Abroad!

It seems that investing in emerging markets is the way to go. With an average of 6% a year income in regards to bonds it is no wonder that many investors are looking overseas.

IOUs provided by companies and Governments are proving to be popular in countries such as the Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Serbia, as they pay out an income until they are cashed in.

Opus Energy Have a Fantastic 10th Anniversary

Charlie Crossley-Cooke, Managing Director of Opus Energy

At Business Online we have followed the growth of Opus Energy fairly closely. We have written articles about who they are and what they do and all of their accomplishments. 18 months ago we told you about their success on The Sunday Times Top Track 250 and their announcement of 100 new jobs.

Well it looks like there’s more news to come. In this year’s Top Track 250, Opus Energy has managed to beat their last placement and have made position 129 on the list. They attribute this to a 38% growth in their revenue over the 2011/12 year, as well as the 100 new jobs created last year.

Five Million Paid Less Than Living Wage

A KPMG-commissioned study has found that almost five million of staff throughout the UK and Northern Ireland are paid less than the recommended living wage level. It currently stands at £7.20, although those working in London see a £8.30 level due to increased living costs.

The living wage level is a calculation on how much per hour a worker should be paid in order to provide a decent standard of living for them. This includes the ability to pay rent, bills and necessities.  The living wage is a voluntary rate of pay above the mandatory minimum wage level of £6.19 for those over 21.

EU Debate Woman Board Quotas

Studies by a BBC News show in May discovered that less than a third of the UK’s most influential jobs are held by women. This sparked a large debate and a lot of controversy, with calls to the European Union to debate the matter.

EU Commissioners are preparing to go into lengthy talks about the issue of what is perceived to be international institutional sexism. There are already proposals on how to remedy the situation, with one of the more drastic ideas to make it mandatory for companies to reserve 40% of their board seats for women. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding [pictured] will present the female quotas proposal in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Energy Prices Set for Massive Rise

After announcements by British Gas, the largest energy supplier in the UK, that said they will be raising charges for gas and electricity by an average of 6%, Npower have also declared that they will be raising the price of gas by 8.8% and electricity by 9.1%.

This information comes before winter, a time when energy suppliers obviously face a much higher demand for their fuels. Npower’s chief commercial officer Paul Massara said of the rises: "There is never a good time to increase energy bills, particularly when so many people are working hard to make ends meet".

Britain to Hold a Referendum on EU Membership?

David Cameron has hinted at plans that his government will hold a referendum on whether or not Britain should remain a part of the European Union, and whether greater involvement is needed.

A letter to the Sunday Telegraph back in June of this year made it clear that an immediate in/out referendum was not going to happen in the near future. Instead, he wanted a “real choice” for voters, so that they could make an informed decision about the issue.

Some MPs have labelled the move as “party management” and citing the Eurozone crisis as a more prevalent issue. However, pundits considering the UKs departure from the EU have made it clear that Britain cannot remain where it is. Sharon Bowles, Lib Dem MEP, has claimed that some Eurozone countries blame the UK for the current crisis.

Not only was this caused by the fact that the City of London banks agreed that they had let the 2008 financial crisis occur, and subsequently the Eurozone crisis, but recent scandals involving the Libor rigging, money-laundering and PPI mis-selling have made the Eurozone increasingly untrusting of the British financial system.

Some pundits have also accrued Britain’s detachment from the Eurozone, the fact that it has a separate currency and less obligations, have sustained the current problems. If the UK were to stay within the EU, calls for further integration and closer ties would be made. The government has to decide not only whether to stay, but how much sovereignty to award the EU, an issue that is hotly contested throughout the UK.

It is expected that David Cameron will make a major speech about the British relationship with Europe ahead of the EU Leaders Summit in December this year. Then, it is expected for the Prime Minister to lay-out his plans for the future of British involvement in Europe and a response to European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, call for a new EU Treaty to create “a democratic federation of nation states.”

Amalgamating into a federation of states will be a much closer association with Europe than the UK has previously experienced. The decision is expected to be made by the people of Great Britain, during a referendum.

FSA to Reform Libor Responsibilities for the BBA

Head of the UK’s financial regulator, Mr Martin Wheatley, has will publish a report that suggests reforms to Libor this week. This includes the role of the British Banker’s Association (BBA) who originally collated the data used by Libor.

In the wake of the Libor rigging scandal, in which Barclays were charged and several other banks are under investigation for purposefully altering estimates to control the inter-bank rate, the FSA has decided to review how Libor is run and suggest any reforms that they feel necessary.

It is expected that one of these reforms will be the change in responsibility for the BBA to collate and publish the data that affects the inter-bank rate. The BBA released a statement saying that: "If Mr Wheatley's recommendations include a change of responsibility for Libor, the BBA will support that."

In the current working of Libor, banks submit estimated rates at which they would loan each other money, in particular the percentage of interest on dollars over a 3-month period. The estimates are then used to calculate the standard rate for inter-bank exchanges.

This is a reflection on the financial health of different banks, the benchmark for interest rates on mortgages, loans and other lending.

It was discovered that, for several years, senior Barclays employees were purposefully driving down the Libor rates, which resulted in large losses for savers and investors. Other banks are being investigated currently on the same charges of manipulation.

This scandal compounded several months of other humiliations for the banking industry, including the miss-selling of payment protection insurance and the miss-selling of specialist insurance (interest rate swaps) for small businesses.

Just what the reform ideas will be remains to be seen until the report is published (expected on Friday) and how quickly it can be implemented may affect how well the reform is received. It is speculated that Libor rates will be calculated based on actual market information, instead of bank estimates. One thing is for sure, these recent scandals have sunk trust in the banking industry even further and something has to be done about it.

FTSE 100 Sees 6 Month High Thanks to US Federal Reserve

the previous close line of 5820 can be seen near the bottom of the graph
The US Federal Reserve announced that it was pledging $40billion a month into a flagging US economy, until it saw sustained job market growth. The news comes as a great relief to the UK market as it struggles to deal with declining and unstable European financial systems. A growing and strong US market would give the UK a solid economy with which to trade, bolstering confidence in the UK stock market.

As of 11:13am the FTSE100 was at 5910.41, a 90.49 or 1.6% growth. While it ducked a little from an earlier high of 5911.70, where the index hit its strongest posting in 6 months, the growth is incredibly encouraging during a nervous time for most economies. This is a large step towards the FTSE’s aim of hitting 6000 points, a psychological barrier that, once broken, will provide a huge measure of confidence in the UK market and hopefully stimulate the economy even further.

Experts have warned against being too optimistic about the rise, indicating that while it is a positive move for the market, there are chances for people to run too far ahead and see another drastic collapse. Erring on the side of caution seems to be the way forward.

Dag Muller, technical strategist at SEB (Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken/Scandinavian Private Bank) said of the growth, “If you look at the move from the June lows, you can draw some tentative trend channel lines and the upper end of that trend channel coincides fairly well with that yearly high. So ... as long as we don't get any message from the market that it has run too far too fast, I think you should aim at 6,000-plus in this move in the FTSE ... within next week."

A 6000point valuation of the FTSE 100 has not been reached in over a year. The FTSE 250 also saw a boost, with 271.85 rise as of 13:30.

The Importance of Defining Your Company's Purpose

Many companies have mission statements, slogans and promises that tell their consumers what the company offers, whether it’s low prices, a reliable source or expert services. However, a promise isn’t worth much unless you let people know why your company offers that pledge.

The purpose behind a company essentially asks the age old question “why are we here?” and it’s important in business. You have to know why you’re in the marketplace, what about your company is vital to your customers’ lives and why they should trust in your promise.

It also helps employees and associates throughout the business to know why they work for you, what their work is going towards and how they should conduct themselves. It defines their very work ethic.

An example is Wal-Mart, which promises reduced prices on a range of goods. It recently went on to ask why it guarantees that, and it came up with the answer ‘to provide better lives for families’. This meant that customers trusted Wal-Mart motives more and it helped employees to know that the food and other products they were helping to sell would ultimately benefit a family by allowing them to the spend money they saved shopping on other goods or services.

Defining why your company exists can mean that you can easily find a way to carve a niche in your marketplace. It gives you a sense of purpose and a drive to move forward, an important thing in the current climate, and can be a rallying cry for your investors. Many companies offer the same service or product, but how and why they operate can vary and this can be how to make yourself get noticed and, ultimately, chosen.

Purpose gives companies something to strive for and fulfil a much greater psychological bond with customers than empty promises. Knowing who you are is vital to standing out in a crowded marketplace.

How will be people know your purpose? Through purpose-driven marketing. You have to let people know who you are, what you offer and why you offer it. Those three combined all add up to why they should choose you over a competitor and will increase brand connectivity with your consumer base. This works best by using online and social marketing, where people can interact and keep up-to-date with how your company fulfils its purpose.

So take a long, hard look inside your company and figure out just why you are here. It’s a much easier philosophical question than trying to figure out why we’re here as a whole.

Stress at Work: Open-Plan Offices

Open-plan office layouts were the idea of ‘new wave’ management thinking to get employees more connected and face-to-face. The idea being that this created a better environment for innovation and creative thinking. People would be able to discuss their ideas with their colleagues without having to deal with the barriers caused by the cubicle layout of days gone by.

Experts now think that open-plan offices are actually detrimental to the office environment and can result in added stress instead of a more sociable and relaxed atmosphere. Studies have shown that while employees are more frequently talking, the conversational quality isn’t high. Most conversations are short and superficial. Researchers believe that this is because of the lack, or perceived lack, of privacy among co-workers. The barriers created by cubicle offices were mainly psychological rather than actually prohibitive.

The idea behind open-plan was to generate the kind of ‘water-cooler’ informality that can bring about greater cooperation and creative thinking. In some cases though, it has the exact opposite effect. Employees are still sneaking off to empty conference rooms or waiting to leave the office on a break before relaxing. Another component to the building of stress is the noise level. While there was certainly noise in previous office layouts, it was more subdued due to the private space of cubicles. In an open-plan, you are subjected much more to low-level background noise. This includes hushed chattering, the typing of keyboards, computer notifications dinging and people walking around, eating or drinking. This doesn’t seem like a huge deal. All offices have background noise.

However, studies have shown that when a group of clerical workers were subjected to low-level background noise they were much more likely to give up on difficult tasks after only a few attempts, were less likely to rearrange their desks to make themselves more comfortable and generally displayed a lack of motivational behaviour against a similar control group that were asked to work in silence. Strangely, both groups reported the same level of perceived stress, indicating that background-noise can be detrimental to motivation without workers even realising it.

Many people, especially those who are of a younger generation, will try to combat the background noise pollution with their own headphones. Some have argued that this creates the same amount of noise and distraction as background-level noise but the ability to control the noise seems to be the deciding factor. Some researchers posit that the background noise is such a stressful factor because it is outside of one individual’s control.

Another tenet of the ‘open-plan’ thinking is that employees will be more willing to help each other with problems and that this would increase productivity. However, research has shown that while those needing help are satisfied and can get on with their work, the employees supplying help can become more stressed and show a drop in work efficiency.

This is also on top of the likely chance that some co-workers will not get on very well, nor is it the ideal layout in case of workplace bullying. There are many reasons that can cause an open-plan office to negatively stress workers out. All of this being said though, there are some contradictory studies that show the opposite. Some offices show that workers increase in productivity, happiness and creativity when placed in an open-office environment.

The moral of the story here, is that it’s not so much a choice of either cubicles or open-plan, but each company is different. Depending on the size of the company, how it’s organised and what it’s trying to accomplish can all affect whether or not an open-plan office is the design for you.

What is Kickstarter?

The web has transformed many sectors over the past two decades. The music and film industries have battled piracy, high street shops have seen increased competition from online stores and digital marketing has increased the revenues of many businesses. However one area which had not been fully exploited was business funding and this is where Kickstarter.com comes in.

Kickstarter is a start-up for crowd funded ideas. The site describes itself as “a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavours.”Users simply post their ideas on the site with an estimate of how much money they need to turn their concept into a reality and users around the world can make their dreams come true. Instead of giving away a percentage of their business the creators offer their funders a product or a special service in return for their investment. Examples include a user creating an art book offered to draw an image for each investor and a company producing REM enhancing masks offered laser cut coins for every pledge. 

There are only two small negatives to the site. If your project is not fully funded then you do not receive any money and Kickstarter will take a percentage of the money invested in your business. However these are relatively small negatives compared to the positives which users gain from posting their ideas.

The website not only offers creators money but also exposure to a potential large audience. Several sourced projects have hit the headlines recently after being placed on Kickstarter. One example is Double fine, the creator of point and click adventure games. The company posted a new game idea on the site and gained $1 million in just 1 day. If you have a great business idea and have been looking for a way to fund the project this may well be your best option.

Top tools for SEO enthusiasts

There are many different programs on the market which offer help with SEO campaigns. These allow your business to easily track where your website is ranking on a search engine for a chosen keyword or phrase. As an example, if your website ranks in position one for the phrase “football cap” and you receive lots of traffic and conversions from the result, you will want to know when your site falls to position 2, 3 or even off of the first page. Caphyon has created two very useful pieces of software which let users monitor changes in search results and track links. These can help you to monitor your SEO and improve your clients’ traffic and ROI in a simple, easy to use way.

AWR

Advanced Web Ranking or AWR is one of the best tools on the market for monitoring Google rankings. Unlike many free piece of software and browser extensions, this complete SEO software is a desktop program which tracks all your chosen keywords across a range of different search engines. It also stores historic data allowing you to see how your web pages have moved up or down search engine results in the past weeks, months or even years. The software gives you the option to monitor your competitor’s positions and schedules reports to be run at a certain time each week, making it easy to show your client your results and compare them against their rivals.

 AWR has a simple install process and does not require users to add personal information or to configure API credentials. The program’s interface is clear and easy to use with many tutorials available to help you get to grips with the program in a minimal amount of time.

The program covers all three main UK search engines; Google, Bing and Yahoo as well as a list of country specific sites such as Google Germany and Belgium. The software supports regional search engines including Baidu and Altavista as well as a range of other popular websites with search functionality including Dmoz, Youtube, and about.com.

The software has several import features which allow users to cut the amount of time they spend importing data. Users can upload keyword lists from Google suggest or word tracker directly to AWR. The program also suggests other related keywords you can use to increase traffic and ROI on your site.

Following the installation and simple setup the program will automatically review the search engines for your given keywords. Following the results the program gives you the options of viewing keyword rankings compared to a previous date, evolution through time and check the top 10 sites for that keyword. This in turn allows you to spot trends and see the progress of your hard work. If your site is moving up Google ranking for a certain search term you will have clear data to show your work is paying off. If your rankings for phrases are dropping you will know straight away and be able to backtrack to figure out what the issue is and what you can do to stop your site falling.

The software allows users to export data to Excel for further manipulation and offers alerts to automatically trigger when a keyword falls or a certain event occurs.

AWR is available now for Mac and Linux and Windows.

ALM

Advanced Link Manager is another tool by Caphyon which helps SEO managers keep track of their work. Unlike AWR, ALM tracks the success of your link building. This is a common tactic used for SEO and involves asking websites to place links back to your website. Search engines determine how popular a website is through several factors with one of the most common being the amount of links that point to your website. If a site has a large amount of websites linking to it, a search engine believes it should be more popular and be a worthwhile result.

SEO professionals typically mention Page Rank or “PR” as a way to display the strength of a website. The system ranks websites from 1 to 10 which ranks websites by links and authority. Popular websites which have many places linking to them will have Page ranks of 8, 9 or 10, while relatively unknown sites will have PR scores of 2, 1 or even 0. However in recent years PR has become more irrelevant as search engines take other areas into consideration.

ALM specialises in tracking links back to your website, monitoring if a site has removed your ad or the link has become broken. The program has a simple to use interface which is similar to AWR. As with the web ranking tool, ALM offers a very easy setup. Users only have to enter their website URL to start tracking links. 

The program allows users to monitor their links over time and can help SEO professionals to determine which keywords they need to be building inbound links for. The program will display possible websites to place more links on and has a great broken link finder, allowing you to find out which links have stopped working or are being directing to 404 pages on your site.

ALM offers several key services which make it stand out from its competitors, these include monitoring your competitors sites, the ability to schedule the program to check links, creating triggers to alert you of a change, and the option to import information to Excel for further manipulation.

ALM and AWR can be purchased from Caphyon’s website and run on Mac, Linux and Windows.

The Fall of Google+… or did it never take off?

Google+ is the social network created by the Mountain View, California based Google Inc.
According to Google’s Chief Executive Larry Page, Google+ has become a robust competitor in the social network space, with 90 million users registered since June 2011.

A Wall Street journal points out that Google+ is more like a virtual ghost town compared to its biggest rival Facebook. The data from the research firm comScore shows that Google+ users are signed up, but not actually using much Google’s Social network. Users stay an average of about three minutes a month on Google+ (September to January), compared to six to seven hours on Facebook each month for the same period. Unfortunately the report didn’t include mobile data usage.

Google is making a long-term bet as it hasn’t yet approached companies to advertise on Google+. Unfortunately some web marketers that tested Google+ says that their brand messages haven’t had the impact on consumers they expected. But Google also uses the networking site as an auxiliary for other Google services, such as personalized search results, including results from Google+. Google claims that comScore’s data is “dramatically lower” than their internal data.

Still most Google+ partners are underwhelmed by the lack of user interest and user activity. Intel for instance has 360.000 Google+ subscribers, but get only dozens of comments on its posts whereas on Facebook the company has nine million “fans” and gets thousands of comments there.

“Google+ doesn’t have the same degree of vibrancy than Facebook, Twitter or even Pinterest has at the moment” said David Cohen. The executive vice president of McCann Erickson commented “Without active engagement, Google+ will not be attractive to advertisers.”

So even if Google approaches the companies to advertise on Google+, it might be too late for Google’s social network if the costumers have already moved into other networks such as Pinterest or Tumblr.

Branded Theme Parks around the World

Theme parks are a great destination for families to relax and for thrill seekers to feel exuberated. Disney has seen great success from its amusement parks, which attract millions each year. Many brands have decided not to create theme parks in the past due to the start up cost or because they feel it would not fit with their brand image. However in the past few years several companies have sponsored theme park rides and a few have created or plan to create a theme park. We have collected some of the most interesting branded theme parks below;

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is home to the world’s largest indoor theme park, Ferrari World. The amusement park is a great destination for car fanatics and thrill seekers. Although the theme park has experienced some setbacks in the past due to low attendance, it has now become one of the top attractions in Abu Dhabi. Tourists can learn more about the car manufacturer, enjoy thrilling rides and kids even have the chance to learn how to drive a Ferrari car.

Angry Birds Theme Park

Rovio, the creators of highly popular computer game Angry Birds, are currently developing a theme park in their home country of Finland. Although the planning is still in its initial stage, authorities have confirmed the park will go ahead and they will release more information later in the year.

World of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is more than just a company known for its soda. It has become one of the largest brands in the world with various products under its belt. Located in Georgia, the World of Coca-Cola is a great destination for people who want to learn more about the company’s famous beverages. Tourists can find artifacts and additional information about the soda and the company’s venture in other products.

Opus Energy recognised as a first class business to work for

Opus Energy, a UK based business power supplier, has demonstrated its staff engagement by being presented with a ‘first class’, one star rating in the 2012 Best Companies accreditation scheme.

The scheme is run by Best Companies, the organisation behind The Sunday Times’ prestigious “Who to work for” list. Best Companies asked Opus Energy’s employees 70 questions to gain a clear view of how they felt about working at the organisation. The questions focused on eight main factors, these included; the staff members direct manager, leadership, my company, personal growth, my team, fair deal, giving something back, and wellbeing.

Opus Energy’s Managing Director, Charlie Crossley Cooke stated: “We have had a strong result from this year’s Best Companies survey, and have seen staff engagement grow overall. I’d like to congratulate the team of people we have working here at Opus Energy for their important contribution to the growth of the business. I’m happy they feel that their role is acknowledged by what Opus Energy gives back.”

Opus Energy’s Head of HR, Learning and Development, Annamarie Petsis Jones commented: “This year we saw a great improvement in how employees felt about their individual growth at the company. I believe that this is a reflection of the emphasis we place on staff training, to enable our employees to develop in their careers at Opus. That is something we are planning to develop further in 2012 with our forthcoming Management Development Programme and newly launched NVQ Apprenticeship Scheme.”

Giving Something Back was also one of the areas that Opus Energy staff engagement increased in. Opus Energy, Credit Controller, Pankaj Raikundalia, reflects on this: "When I joined Opus and realised that the business was very active in supporting national and local charities I was really happy because supporting charitable causes is something I've always enjoyed doing. There have been several individual initiatives to raise money for a range of charities and I am very proud to have taken part in the activities for these causes with some incredible support from the individuals taking part,Opus Energy's Management and of course the sponsors."

The Top Super Bowl 2012 Ads

The hype and anticipation for the ads during the Super Bowl is almost as high as the American football game. Due to the popularity of the TV spot, companies create special ads for the commercial break and often have a campaign which leads to the adverts release. The commercials are often quirky and have in the past gone viral across internet sites such as YouTube.

Some ads are created to make the audience laugh while others try to convey a message in their content.

The following commercials were highly spoken about during the 2012 Superbowl;

Clint Eastwood and Chrysler

Clint Eastwood’s 2-minute commercial for Chrysler is somewhat of a surprise. Eastwood is famous for staring in Hollywood blockbusters however he rarely appears on a commercial. Some users have commented on the ad stating the commercial is a subtle message of approval for the President’s work. Both Republicans and Democrats have something to say about the commercial.

Samsung Galaxy Note and Darkness

In case you’re not familiar, the Darkness is a glam rock group that recently reunited. It’s one of the most popular rock bands of the past decade and their reunion is highly anticipated. The Galaxy Note ad heavily uses The Darkness’ song “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and features the band’s vocalist.

Budweiser and Prohibition

Budweiser have had a string of top viral videos and their Super Bowl commercial didn’t disappoint. The ad celebrated the end of prohibition and although the historical accuracy of the ad is questionable, it was loved by many beer drinkers.

Learning More about SOPA & PIPA American Bills

Recently some of the biggest websites in the world have come together to show their disdain against the proposed American Bills. Called the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the PIPA (Protect IP Act), these two bills were proposed to prevent copyright infringement. Piracy is one of the biggest problems today because almost everything that can be shared digitally can be downloaded without proper credit or payment to the owner. The SOPA and PIPA will try to curtail these problems by expanding the power of the content owner or owners as well as stronger law enforcement.

At first glance, SOPA and PIPA are two very impressive bills because they can help the owners and producers of music, movies, books and anything with intellectual property to get the correct compensation for their effort. However, closer examination of the bill presents very daunting effects on the online community. The potential perils led to various types of online protests. One of the most popular types of protest was done by Wikipedia when their English version went offline for 24 hours.

The effect of SOPA and PIPA if enforced can be very devastating because almost anything can be considered as intellectual property. For example, a kid singing a song by Beyonce in YouTube could be sued for intellectual property infringement. A blog could be shut down simply because of a single post with incorrect attributes on a single picture. Any phrase or implication of illegal file sharing could also cause some legal problems.

SOPA and PIPA will practically curtail free speech and expression. Fortunately, the congress put a stop on the bill because of the overwhelming opposition of the online users. For now, people are safe online because their freedom is never curtailed in a virtual environment.