Congressman Thompson, Running in November to Represent Rohnert Park, Takes Aim at Online Piracy

When Congress halted two controversial bills Jan. 20 that targeted Internet piracy — SOPA and PIPA — Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, took action. He spread the word out to his current and future hopeful electorate about a new bill he's endorsing.

The argument against SOPA and PIPA, as reported by dozens of media outlets, pitted Hollywood against Silicon Valley. While Thompson agreed that online piracy is a problem, he agreed that the two bills would "stifle innovation."

In response, Thompson, who is running for re-election in 2012 to represent the , co-sponsored new legislation that he says protects Internet freedom while taking aim at online piracy.

“Under the rules SOPA would impose, our innovation-driven economy would take an enormous blow," Thompson said, as sites like Wikipedia shut down and others such as Google were blacked out for the day in protest of the legislation.

Critics agreed that the Stop Internet Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act threatened Internet censorship, and jeapordized access and innovation on the web. CNN Money reported that "PIPA and SOPA aim to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access and services to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content."

But "startups wouldn't be able to handle the costs that come with defending their sites against a barrage of alleged violations," Thompson said. "Domestic companies could be held liable for unknowingly linking to rogue website content. And people won’t invest in Internet startups for fear their money will be tied up in litigation, not innovation. The next Facebook or Google could never get off the ground."

Called the OPEN (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act, Thompson explained that under the new law, any alleged copyright or trademark infrigement would be invesigated by the International Trade Commission rather than the Justice Department. He added that the proposed legislation would:

"...enable holders of intellectual property to petition the International Trade Commissions to launch an investigation into whether a foreign website’s only purpose is to engage in infringement of U.S. copyrights and trademarks. While complex and difficult issues would take time to resolve, investigations into simple and obvious cases, like the worst foreign rogue websites, could be handled in a matter of days. In either case, the process would create a transparent system in which all parties would have a chance to be heard."

"The OPEN Act takes a much narrower and more targeted approach to combating online infringement than other proposed legislation such as SOPA by only targeting sites 'primarily and willfully' engaging in infringement. By employing a clear and targeted definition of infringement, the OPEN Act will ensure that only legitimate cases are pursued. Other pieces of legislation such as SOPA employ broader standards that would require many website operators to employ lawyers to argue that it is not engaging in intellectual property infringement. Such broad definitions could be used to discourage innovation and quash free speech."

Neither the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House nor the Protect IP Act in the Senate allow for similar due process, according to bill sponsors.

According to supporters, the OPEN Act is supported by a bipartisan group of 22 house members and three senators, as well as AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zyng, amongst others. Patch.com is part of AOL and the Huffington Post Media Group.