JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: This is with reference to your editorial of January 20 “Say no to SOPA” on the planned legislation by the US Congress called the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA.
Is SOPA an answer to the piracy of intellectual material on the internet? The straightforward answer to that is a resounding ‘no’. I don’t think SOPA will provide a workable solution and, if ever passed will end up tainting the Obama administration.
If passed into law and enforced, it will grant private American companies holding intellectual copyrights the power to request authorities to shutdown non-American websites they consider to be involved in piracy. This will be done without having to go through America’s judicial system. The question is that who will ensure that the American companies and internet regulators are acting in good faith, especially when someone is not required to justify his or her actions.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2012.
