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 Web sites 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 Web sites 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 Web site was dedicated to piracy. The Web site 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’s to stop doing business with the Web site.

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 Web site from illegally streaming the Super Bowl. That Web site 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 Web sites accused of the vague crimes of enabling or assisting piracy. OPEN would penalize only Web sites 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.