OPEN Anti-Piracy Draft Circulated By PROTECT IP, SOPA Opponents

As promised, opponents of the current SOPA and PROTECT IP online foreign anti-piracy bills have introduced their own alternative legislation in the form of a draft bill.

It is based on a framework outlined last week by Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), John Campbell (R-CA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act would update U.S. trade laws to reflect that illegally downloading protected content -- like a TV show or film -- from a foreign-owned Web site is akin to illegally importing foreign hard goods. It would expand the powers of the International Trade Commission to enforce copyright and trademark infringement of online digital goods. "U.S. trade laws have failed to keep pace with the digital economy and have yet to extend the protections that U.S. rights-holders enjoy in the physical world to the online world," said the bill's co-sponsors, said Sen Wyden and Rep Issa in announcing the draft. Rep Issa is former chair of the Consumer Electronics Association, which also opposes the SOPA and PROTECT IP approaches, which expand the powers of studios and the Justice department to shut down infringing sites. OPEN backers say it, too, would expand industry powers, giving U.S. rights-holders the ability to petition the ITC to investigate cases of illegal digital imports.