Welcome to TFP’s weekly roundup of interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world. This week we’re discussing SOPA, the release of iBooks 2, building a better app, publishing app trends for 2012, and more.

• The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) caused a major stir in the media this week. The bill, currently being considered by Congress, would prevent access to certain websites, search engine results, and domain names, in what some feel would be an act of censorship. What does this have to do with the magazine industry? Audience Development outlined what magazine publishers need to know about SOPA.
• After a swirl of rumors earlier in the week, on Thursday Apple unveiled iBooks 2, a potentially ground-breaking product that allows individuals without design or coding skills to produce interactive e-books (including textbooks). You can take a closer look at iBooks 2 in the App Store.
• Building a better app has been a hot topic lately in the publishing app world. This week, Adobe offered its perspective in a post on the Adobe Digital Publishing blog.
• Mashable shared its take on the five digital publishing app trends to watch in 2012. Trend #4, the digital textbook, certainly looks positioned to take off this year.
• Are you an InDesign enthusiast? Check out This Week in InDesign for a thorough roundup of InDesign links and tips.
• The past few months have been rife with stories about experimental content strategies, including Ladies’ Home Journal, which recently announced plans to utilize content written by readers. Rob O’Regan just shared a post on the eMedia Vitals blog about the six benefits of using user-generated content.

This Week in Publishing appears every Friday on the TFP blog. Every week we compile interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world and put together a wrap-up to help our readers stay up-to-date. Think we missed something great? Leave a comment below and let us know.