With SOPA And PIPA Dead, Is A New Offering Called OPEN The Answer?

Comparison Of The Three Bills. Click To Enlarge

Backlash from the public organized by those against the online piracy bills in Congress known as SOPA and PIPA, killed that legislation, but some in the government are still looking to put some sort of anti-piracy legislation together. Now, House Representative DARRELL ISSA and Senators RON WYDEN, JERRY MORAN and MARIA CANTWELL have introduced the "Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act," which is shorthanded to the "OPEN Act."

On the website keepthewebopen.com, the legislators write, "The OPEN ACT secures two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to benefit from what they've created. And second, Americans have a right to an open Internet. Our duty is to protect these rights. That's why congressional Republicans and Democrats came together to write the OPEN ACT. But it's only a start. We need your ideas: sign up, comment and collaborate to build a better bill."

One of the differences in the OPEN Act, versus SOPA and PIPA, is that discipline of offending websites who infringe on copyrights would come under the jurisdiction of THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION, rather than the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. The OPEN bill also promises sites that break the law will experience a transparent procedure with due process.

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