The Protect IP Act Puts The United States At The Forefront Of An International Quagmire.
The Internet has the capacity to be many things from an entertainment source to an off-site data storage facility to a powerful tool for education. The Internet remains one of the most powerful resources for communication and understanding from people of all ways of life, all around the world. But the Protect IP Act threatens that freedom, and it does so under the guise of improving Internet security to intellectual property owners.
Right now, the United States Senate is considering S. 968, the Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act. The Protect IP Act bolsters Internet security by creating new punishments for Internet providers who have any pirated material pass through their servers. This means that the United States government would begin policing the Internet and making online data storage sites of material it believes are pirated inaccessible before prosecuting those accused of pirating.
The Protect IP Act empowers the United States Federal Government to punish service providers who may not know about the contents of their data storage units. In fact, the more popular a site is, the less likely the service provider is to know about all of what is on the servers. Given the vague language of the bill, the U.S. Government potentially becomes the biggest threat to Internet security by assuming a Big Brother type role.
But the Protect IP Act version of Big Brother comes armed. Sites that welcome photo sharing or other online data storage are particularly vulnerable. Hypothetically, the Protect IP Act could allow the U.S. Government to shut down Facebook because a photo a user posted infringed upon the copyright. Given that copyright laws, data storage agreements and Internet security protocols are not uniform throughout the world, the Protect IP Act could easily force the U.S. government into a police action in a place where it has no jurisdiction. Perhaps the Senate has forgotten that the first two “w’s” in “www” stands for “World-wide.”
For sure, Internet security is important and due vigilance must be maintained in defending intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, the Protect IP Act is a dramatic overkill, analogous to chopping a person in half to remove a tick on their arm. The bill commits the U.S. to wield such a large machete to the world and with such flimsy language in the bill and the lack of a reasonable way to enforce it overseas or where the data storage hardware is inaccessible or dangerous to reach, it is hard to see the passage of the bill as anything but disastrous.
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