Real piracy

The New York Times has an editorial about OPEN:

We welcomed the collapse this month of two flawed bills to prevent online piracy, bills that could have stifled speech and undermined Internet safety. But piracy by websites in countries like Russia and China, which offer high-quality bootleg copies of movies and music, is a real problem for the nation’s creative industries. And there is legislation that could curb the operation of rogue websites without threatening legitimate expression.
The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act, sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Darrell Issa, offers a straightforward and transparent approach to the problem. Content owners could ask the International Trade Commission to investigate whether a foreign website was dedicated to piracy. The website would be able to rebut the claim. If the commission ruled for the copyright holder, it could direct payment firms like Visa and PayPal and advertising networks like Google to stop doing business with the website.
The bill addresses concerns of copyright holders that the process would be too slow to match the pirates’ speed. It would allow them to request temporary restraining orders when there is urgency to, say, stop a Russian website from illegally streaming the Super Bowl. That website would still have a chance to respond, but it would have to move more quickly to make its case.
The OPEN Act also avoids some of the pitfalls of the previous bills. The legislation backed by movie studios and record labels would have penalized websites accused of the vague crimes of enabling or assisting piracy. OPEN would penalize only websites dedicated “willfully and primarily” to the infringement of copyrights or trademarks, a well-established standard used in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent domestic piracy.
OPEN would not give copyright holders the authority to direct payment processors and ad networks to stop doing business with a given website: that would have opened a door for abuse. And the Justice Department would not be able to “disappear” rogue websites by tinkering with their addresses— a provision too much like hacking, which worried safety experts.
By giving the International Trade Commission the sole authority to determine infringement, OPEN would also prevent copyright holders from shopping around for sympathetic courts, making the process more consistent and less likely to spark trade conflicts and retaliatory moves.
The new bill may not be perfect; some websites that aid or abet pirates may avoid punishment. But it gives copyright holders powerful new tools to protect themselves. And it goes a long way toward addressing the concerns of Internet companies, protecting legitimate expression on the Web from overzealous content owners. The two sides need to move beyond their resentments and push for its passage.

Rico says it's a good start...