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New bill upgrades unauthorized streaming to a felony

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wraith808:
This is WAY OUT OF CONTROL.

(via Ars)

Two months ago, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel produced her wishlist of changes to US law. One item in particular caught our interest—the suggestion that the online streaming of copyrighted content be bumped up to a full-scale felony. Late last week, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced just such a bill.

The text of S. 978 isn't yet available from the official THOMAS system, but Klobuchar's office sent us a copy of the brief bill. Under current law, "reproducing" and "distributing" copyrighted works are felony charges and cover P2P transfers and Web downloads. But streaming is a "public performance" rather than a "distribution"—and holding a public performance without a proper license is not a felony. S. 978 adds "public performance" to the felony list.

Online streamers can now face up to five years in prison and a fine in cases where:

They show 10 or more "public performances" by electronic means in any 180-day period and
The total retail value of those performances tops $2,500 or the cost of licensing such performances is greater than $5,000

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More at link

The finest congresspeople money can buy...  :o :down:

TaoPhoenix:

This bill seems *incredibly dangerous*.

Because in Boiling Frog fashion, you introduce the "structure", then other days you fiddle with the numbers.

This might hit every youtube uploader of their favorite clips!

It's a bit amazing that "Web 2.0" was built on "sharing" - how can you share anything except your own cat videos?

Look at that last sentence:

"...holding a public performance without a proper license is not a felony. S. 978 adds "public performance" to the felony list."

That's not even streaming! See the Spin Doctors at work already? Even in the article, they didn't "make Streaming a felony", they "made public performance a felony" and "streaming a subset of public performance"??!

:o

Stoic Joker:
I've got a few ideas on some acts they can publically perform with that bill.

Renegade:
Oh man... I gotta buy some stock in private prisons! This is going to be so lucrative! Imagine all the innocent people we can lock up! I only wish that I could buy stock in court houses! Business is going to be booming there! Woohoo! Just think of how this is going to benefit the economy! More prison guards hired... More guns, tasers, prison uniforms, guard uniforms, food contracts for prison cafeterias, laundry contracts... Wow! What investment opportunities! Oh... but it's going to drive down the costs of license plates... better short those...

Any questions about how fascism works?

TaoPhoenix:
I've got a few ideas on some acts they can publically perform with that bill.
-Stoic Joker (August 07, 2013, 12:03 PM)
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No. No you can't, you indecently exposing felon!

>:(

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