After 9/11, a world that was sympathetic to the US stand on terrorism, saw a new strategy unfolding – the Bush Doctrine: go and kill the terrorists anytime and anywhere in the world as a preemptive measure to safeguard American interests and be not answerable to anyone or any court. However, by the end of the last decade, the support for such a unilateral doctrine declined with a sharp rise in anti-Americanism across the globe.
Now comes another unilateral doctrine from the present American administration – SOPA (The Stop Online Piracy Act). No one questions that steps are required to protect the intellectual property rights of content online, but is SOPA an answer to the piracy of intellectual material and infringement of copyrights on the web?
I don’t think SOPA will provide a workable solution and if ever passed will be termed as ‘the Obama Doctrine’ – another unilateral doctrine on the part of Americans that does not take into account how it will impact the rest of the world.
SOPA will grant private American companies holding intellectual copyrights the power to go and request the authorities to shutdown non-American websites they consider are involved in piracy.
No courts to be moved to hear the case, no prosecution, no defense; just go and kill the website. Who will make sure that the American companies and American internet regulators are acting in good faith especially when someone is not required to justify his/her actions? This will surely lead to gross injustices.
Wikipedia was shutdown on Jan 18 in protest against SOPA and others have also come out and protested against this unfair legislation.
Piracy is a menace and it should be stemmed – no doubt about that. But how is it possible in this age with people having unprecedented access to information freely? We need to come up with innovative solutions to address this menace without compromising on freedom of information and without infringing on others’ rights.
MASOOD KHAN
Saudi Arabia
