The Internet today is an indispensible engine of job-creation accounting for 3 million new American jobs over the past five years and a flood of new businesses and employment opportunities in Northern Colorado and Boulder.

It brings us not only new jobs, but new ways to bring families closer together and to expand educational opportunities. That's why I'm so concerned about the unintended consequences of two bills before Congress: the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA). Both could do real damage to the online economy at a time when new jobs are needed in Colorado and across the nation.

While SOPA and PIPA differ in some technical aspects, both bills approach the Internet with the same wrongheaded approach.

We should protect American jobs by stopping unscrupulous overseas schemers from pirating our music, films and products. But SOPA and PIPA resort to job-killing litigation and Internet censorship methods such as those used in China to undermine political and religious freedom.

Both SOPA and PIPA would create an avalanche of litigation that could be used by large established companies to assault and destroy upstart competitors.

Through the