The OPEN Act (The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act) is a Senate bill proposed by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on January 18, 2012, as an alternative to the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills.
On the same day this bill was introduced, several thousand websites, including Reddit, Boing Boing, Wired, WordPress, Wikipedia and Mozilla Firefox launched a service blackout in protest of SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). During the service outage, websites opposing the bill, left readers with information about SOPA and PIPA, citing examples of what “could” happen if the SOPA/PIPA bills were passed.
Where SOPA and PIPA seek to require Internet providers and search engines to redirect users away from viewing websites infringing on intellectual property, the OPEN Act would stop transfers of money to foreign websites whose primary purpose is piracy or counterfeiting.
Both PIPA and SOPA rely heavily on enforcement by the U.S. Justice Department where the OPEN ACT would give oversight to the International Trade Commission (ITC).
See also PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).
