It’s commonsense isn’t it? If you’re being paid to promote a product or brand in social media you need to disclose the fact.

It is only a matter of time before someone brings a case forward about a PR agency in breach of the law. There’s a prediction for you for 2011.

Stanley provides photographic services to the PR and marketing industry. Look him up at the Mental Picture or on Twitter @robinstanley.

I’m thoroughly depressed by the so-called Digital Economy Bill. It was rushed through Parliament, will throttle innovation and is a blatant bid to prop up knackered business models.

I counted less than 15 MPs in the chamber at times during the stages of the second reading. Backbenchers from all parties questioned why a bill of such importance was being driven through with such haste during the final hours of the current Parliament.

What started as a well intentioned piece of legislation has resulted in a series of laws that protect traditional industries but does nothing to encourage digital innovation. There will almost certainly be numerous unintended consequences for the PR industry many of which we haven’t even begun to consider.

The most dramatic impact of the bill is that it makes ISPs the custodians of copyright. Any business or individual that repeatedly sends or receives images, audio or video via a UK ISP for which they don’t have copyright authority risks having their account shut down. PR agencies will need to tighten up their copyright governance and ensure that employees aren’t falling foul of the law either personally or professionally.

My real concerns are for the future of UK social media programmes. The Digital Economy bill could make social media sites such as Facebook, Flickr or YouTube unworkable. Under the legislation site owners are responsible for upholding the copyright for material posted by users on their sites. Copyright owners can apply to a court to shut down serial-infringers.

For the fast growing digital PR industry that’s bad news.

Update: Ged Carroll has also posted further comment and analysis on the Digital Economy Bill that is worth checking out.

Confused.com is the exception that proves the rule. According to reports the client offered to purchase the ideas from agencies involved in its recent competitive pitch process after the pitch had taken place.

Clients might be in favour of payment for pitching when polled in a survey but the reality is very different. Why would a client pay when there are plenty of firms lining up to pitch for free?

The issue is the oversupply of PR agencies; for every agency that wants to charge there will always be an agency willing to pitch for free. As a result the cost of pitching is priced into an agency’s overhead. Many agencies probably haven’t even considered the financial impact.

The only way this could work would be if the industry switched wholesale to a payment for pitching model under the campaigning leadership of an organisation such as the PRCA or PR Week.

The research is based on a survey of 186 PR agencies by Furlong PR.

Related posts:

• Sorrell: Free pitching – fixture of the marketing industry (8 October 2009)
• Could the D&AD be a model for payment-for-pitching in the PR industry? (23 September 2009)
• Pitch lessons from other marketing services sectors (23 September 2009)

There was further evidence (if any were needed) this week of the ongoing marketing agency battle to claim ownership of digital marketing, with the announcement in PR Week this week that Volvo has hired media agency MindShare to handle search engine optimisation (SEO), digital PR and social media strategy.

It’s a warning shot as Immediate Future’s Katy Howell identifies in the PR Week story. I’m not going to revisit the debate – search for the hashtag #prdebate if you’re interested. Instead I’m working hard at Speed to develop our offer and stake out the PR industry’s claim for its share of the market.