U.S. Bill on Making Streams Illegal

[Demon_Skeith]

New details have emerged of a United States bill to make it a felony to "perform" copyrighted works such as television series or films illegally without permission, including by streaming. The offence would "consist of 10 or more public performances by electronic means"of the work during a 180-day period. It would also apply if the "total fair market value" of equivalent licensed performances would exceed US$5,000. The penalty would be a fine or imprisonment of not more than five years.

The bill, designated S. 978 was introduced on May 12 by Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn, and Christopher Coons. At that time, Victoria Espinel of the Copyright Alliance said, “While illegal downloading and distribution is a felony, the illegal, willful, and commercial streaming of films, TV programs, and music remains only a misdemeanor.” She described the bill as being aimed at removing “unwarranted obstacles to the prosecution of websites that willfully and illegally stream valuable copyrighted works for commercial advantage or private financial gain."

source

oh s***! I think everyone is guilty of this.

 

[Milton]

Good to see that they kept the offence in ambiguity so that they may interpret it in any way to charge potential "offenders".
Also, I think this is only relevant if you are doing the act for commercial purposes, meaning you actually get paid more than a certain amount to do this act that is apparently a copyright of a film or a movie.

 

[froggyboy604]

I wonder if this law can affect a lot of people even people who embed videos from YouTube on their forums, blog, and websites even if they did not upload it.

 

[Mr. E]

But..I...love...watching streamed videos... hopefully they don't take it away, even though I understand the reason why they should..

 

[gami]

Hmmm... I don't live in usa but let's hope that doesn't come to europe too. I find those punishments ridiculous. Just don't ban youtube please.

 

[froggyboy604]

ICANN who is the non-profit which assign domain names for almost most of the internet is located in the USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN), so if the US Government sends a request to remove a site to ICANN then ICANN will probably take it down. This law can affect almost every website even if the server is located outside the US.

 

[hissae2]

Aww I watch shows and movies online all the time

 

[froggyboy604]

Aww I watch shows and movies online all the time

Same for me, Streaming is one of the reasons I subscribe to high speed internet. I watch a lot of Anime via downloading and streaming.

 

[Colour]

I'm not american but it makes sense that you can't share things illegally and you already can't its just a new form

 

[Sefrotox]

Well I will usually download things to watch but not stream them. Still it's probably not legal, so I am "at fault" with that law too. Though I'm not too worried at this point, because no one has enough prison room for all internet users. They shouldn't have laws on downloading content, but rather uploading. It would be easier to stop those ones sharing rather than the ones simply using the internet. I say that we downloaders/streamers are innocent. I would hate to know that I am in prison and the guy beside me says he committed murder, and I say I streamed a copyrighted file.

I could be misinterpreting what was exactly stated though. But if what I said above, is at all correct, we all know this is bull thinking.