Piracy is the greatest dilemma of anyone selling legitimate and original products. Pirates earn more than the original sellers because they sell it at a cheaper price, so people go gaga over them.  The U.S. government has been raking their brains thinking of ways how to curtail piracy but so far, their solutions create greater problems if placed into action.

Back in May, lawmakers came up with the Protect IP Act, a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the U.S. government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods,” especially those registered outside the U.S. but it was faced with a lot of controversies regarding digital rights and the methods used to enforce laws and regulations regarding copyrighted content on the web.

Then they came up with Stop Online Piracy Act which was said to be the revamped version of the Protect IP Act, flaws were said to be resolved.  But it poses a problem of Internet technology companies as even a few links that lead to piracy sites or promoting piracy could result the shutdown of your favorite website.  Google, eBay, and Twitter are just some of the sites who will be greatly affected by this that’s why they’re pushing so that it won’t be passed into law.

Legislation currently is cutting into U.S. cloud economy so perhaps the framers of PIPA an SOPA should look at what current U.S. cloud policy is doing. For example, the Patriot Act threatens not only the privacy of users but as well as creating a market filled with distrust and potentially killing the market as potential foreign business partners or investors would no longer want to partner up with US companies like in the case of Microsoft when it lost the BAE deal.  Aside from that, data could possibly be compromised.

So how could piracy be stopped?  Lawmakers may have come up with a solution in the form of “The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade” or OPEN Act.  The bill would enhance ITC’s Section 337 powers to deal with infringing goods, whether physical or virtual, being sold to U.S. consumers from foreign Web sites.  One of the things the bill would focus on are the payment methods used by the infringing sites, if no money comes in, piracy would stop.  Credit card companies, ad networks, and other payment platforms will be asked to cut their ties with the sites in question.

The OPEN Act would also provide notification and opportunity to sites being charged with infringement to challenge any complaints filed in the ITC. “ It will also preserve existing standards of liability for third parties, including Web sites that host comments, links, or user content. Current procedures for enforcing copyright and trademark against U.S. infringers would not be undermined.”

According to an extensive report on CNET, OPEN Act “treats the problem of rogue foreign Web sites as precisely what it is–a foreign trade problem. It enhances the ability of the ITC, the agency already charged with hearing trade complaints, to cut off the supply of funds to the most dangerous sites, and to do so quickly when necessary.”

The OPEN Act comes from the unlikely coalition of Republicans and Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and co-sponsored by the following Senators: Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) and U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), John Campbell (R-Calif.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.).