271 replies to this topic

[Stefancos]

This law basically means that Justin Bieber should go to jail.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20071913-17/senate-group-backs-prison-time-for-illegal-streaming/


Senate group backs prison time for illegal streaming



The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill yesterday that would make it a felony to stream copyrighted content that was illegally obtained.
The bill, known as the Commercial Felony Streaming Act, addresses what some lawmakers are calling a loophole in current copyright-infringement laws. It is currently a felony to download or upload copyrighted content, but streaming is not expressly prohibited.
If the bill is eventually passed by lawmakers, streaming illegally obtained content for commercial purposes could lead to five years in prison. According to the bill, a person would be charged when the "offense consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works."
As the Motion Picture Association of America notes, the bill would apply to Web site owners who have "willfully and knowingly violated a copyright and profited from it." The organization said those who "stream videos without intending to profit" will not be subject to prosecution under this bill.
In a joint statement, several prominent entertainment groups, including the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild of America, and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, celebrated the bill's approval by the Judiciary Committee.
"Make no mistake: the illegal streaming of content for commercial or financial gain is a crime, and the Commercial Felony Streaming Act places the appropriate criminal label on the activity," according to the joint statement. "This legislation is an important step forward in our efforts to stem the rising tide of Internet theft that threatens our members' very livelihoods."
Although the bill was brought to the Senate last month by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), the issue of illegal streaming had been raised in a 20-page white paper released by the Obama administration in March. The administration said it was concerned that illegal streaming of content was not covered under criminal law and requested that lawmakers draw up a new law to "clarify that infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony in appropriate circumstances."
The Obama administration has firmly been on the side of copyright holders. In early 2009, then-President-elect Barack Obama appointed to prominent positions in the Justice Department two lawyers who had defended copyright holders in the past.
Vice President Joe Biden has also been a staunch supporter of copyright holders, making that clear last year when he said that piracy is just as bad as any form of theft.
"We used to have a problem in this town saying this," Biden told reporters at a press conference in Washington, D.C last year. "But piracy is theft. Clean and simple. It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's and grabbing [merchandise]."

[BloodBoal]

If this goes on like this, soon enough, the whole world population will be in jail.

[Chaac]

"But piracy is theft. Clean and simple. It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's and grabbing [merchandise]."

Sigh...

[Stefancos]

Please don't attribute that as a quote from me....

[Chaac]

Fixed.

[Richard Penna]

"But piracy is theft. Clean and simple. It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's and grabbing [merchandise]."

Sigh...

+1

[Melange]

[Morn]

Vice President Joe Biden has also been a staunch supporter of copyright holders, making that clear last year when he said that piracy is just as bad as any form of theft.

That's a bit like saying running a red light is the same thing as crashing your car. We are talking about un-authorised copying here. Still illegal and immoral but it's silly to call it theft.

[Wojo]

The problem is the people who make the laws define theft as "getting something for free that you didn't pay for."

By that definition, copying a DVD or downloading a song is the same as stealing a car or snatching that Tiffany's lamp: Yesterday you didn't have it, today you do, and the person who was selling it didn't get your money.

The difference, of course, is that once you steal the car or lamp, nobody else can buy it, which represents a discrete financial loss for the seller.

That digital file can be downloaded an infinite number of times but also be sold just as many times, which is a much harder financial figure for the lawmakers to wrap their heads around. They are siding with the sellers, who feel they are losing that Price x Infinity amount.

Classic piracy is stealing the car: you stop the ship, board it, steal the loot, and murder the crew. Today's world has adopted that term for something totally different.

[king mark]

So you still don't believe my gloomy predictions of what the internet is going to be like in 5 years?

[Melange]

Until the day our so called 'representatives'' begin to operate ethically and morally themselves, their lectures are not worth downloading.

[king mark]

If the SOPA bill passes and becomes law, websites can be eliminated for mere "suspicion" of encouraging copyright infringement or illegal file sharing (no actual proof needed)

Not sure why anyone here isn't slightly freaked out about this prospect

[Chaac]

I'm freaked out about these kind of laws. They serve no purpose and can be used for censorship. Plus they'll be obsolete quite fast.

[Stefancos]

If the SOPA bill passes and becomes law, websites can be eliminated for mere "suspicion" of encouraging copyright infringement or illegal file sharing (no actual proof needed)

Doesn't that mean that in theory Youtube is finished?

(i know it won't happen, but still)

[king mark]

From what I'm reading even Youtube could be finished. Or so severely crippled nobody will use it anymore

All those gaming walkthroughs/video solutions could be gone for example. Maybe cat videos would be the only thing remaining

I spent 2 hours reading up on it and it's pretty scary. Basically handing over total control of the Internet to Hollywood and the music industry. Any website that goes against their interest would be eliminated. Not just in the US but worldwide

[Blumenkohl]

Wikipedia is mulling a US black out to protest SOPA.

Hmmm. I like it. Imagine if Google joined.

[king mark]

It's very dangerous. People aren't aware of it because they won't talk about it on TV news (US networks owned by movie studios)

They are tying to pass it so people are only aware of it after it's done

[Stefancos]

Youtube has far too much muscle and is far too usefull to the movie and music industry to be a target.

But smaller sites like ours could suffer.

[Blumenkohl]

And just a friendly reminder to the rest of the world...of how we will drag you down with us.

The U.S. controls .com, .net, and .org domains. That means SOPA covers all those sites...regardless of territory.

But that's not all, we'll throw in control of 7 out of the world's 13 DNS root servers, and you're golden baby! Free SOPA for all!

[Trent Bennett]

Anyways Youtube tends to crack down on accounts that are illegally streaming stuff IE: movies and such. Right before Netflix Streaming put Star Trek Enterprise, The Original Series, The Next Generation and Voyager on nearly every account that had those episodes got shut down faster than you can say, "Who's your daddy?".

Of course you also have the spam accounts that say "Due to copyright issues, this account has been shut down and can't play this video, but in order to view it go to such and such site" or something similar to that regards.

[king mark]

yes but that's nothing compared to what's going to happen is SOPA passes

[Drax]

Goodbye, AVGN.

[Melange]

Our mistake as millions of users was to allow Governments to claim the net as 'their' land to regulate.

Once people started demanding something "Be done" about this that or the other, the trojan horse entered.

[BloodBoal]

I say it's time to shut down the Internet. For good.

[Stefancos]

I always figured it was just a hype, like Space Hoppers, the Rubiks Cube and bi-sexuality.

[Drax]

I always figured it was just a hype, like ... bi-sexuality.

They're real, I tells ya!

[Stefancos]

Only the women...

[Datameister]

So, if I understand correctly, this law (not SOPA) would allow the government to punish people for taking others' intellectual property without permission and profiting off of it.

What's the problem?

[Blumenkohl]

The Commercial Felony Streaming Act (what Steef posted), separate from SOPA, takes a previously civil matter and makes it a felony. It also isn't just about profiting off of it but also incurring a loss of revenue of $5,000 or more.

[Datameister]

Ah. Still, I don't see the big deal. Don't attempt to profit off of others' copyrighted material, and it doesn't affect you in any way.

SOPA, on the other hand, is a bit worrisome to me. The spirit behind it makes sense, but I'm definitely concerned about overzealous interpretation and application of it, since the wording seems pretty open-ended and ambiguous.

Of course, I'm not above obtaining copyrighted material illegally, but I make a point of only doing it when the copyright holder decides not to give me the option of paying for the material, as in the case of unreleased film score music.

[king mark]

even this site is at risk with this new bill

[Wojo]

First rule of trying to hide a pink elephant is to not stand on a street corner and announce you have a pink elephant.

[king mark]

Hey I'm just saying any forum about music or movie discussion should be worried

[Drax]

This is a movie score website, nobody reads this shit.

[Datameister]

Well kiss ffshrine and similar sites goodbye if it's passes. And probably upload sites like Megaupload will be so severely watched nobody will be able to share any music file whatsoever

even this site is at risk with this new bill

Wait, since when do ffshrine, Megaupload, and JWfan stream copyrighted content for profit?

[Blumenkohl]

I'm sure each can be claimed to have caused $5,000 or more in losses to the music industry.

[king mark]

A lot of the Internet founders have sent a letter to congress to stop this. It's THAT serious. And they now plan to pass this bill next Wednesday anyways 4 days before Christmas when everyone else is distracted. They even refused tech experts to explain the security risks and damage to the Internet this will do

This isn't some law to only target The Pirate Bay. It probably affects a lot of websites you visit every day

Think of DMCA take downs applying to entire websites instead of individual videos on You Tube . Even posting a copyrighted picture would be enough to take a site down

I am shocked only about 5 people care at JWfan . Internet contents will be dictated by SONY and movie studios since it gives them the power to shut down everything that they feel makes them lose money

So, if I understand correctly, this law (not SOPA) would allow the government to punish people for taking others' intellectual property without permission and profiting off of it.

What's the problem?

No , it means anyone can file a copyright infringement claim on a website and have it shut down, even if it's only a SUSPICION of infringement. Also LINKING to illegal files will become illegal

http://www.techspot....-in-letter.html

And this

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/12/16/how-sopa-could-ruin-my-life/

[Datameister]

This thread is about the Commercial Felony Streaming Act, not SOPA, which I already acknowledged is a little scary with its vague wording and broad scope. I say "a little" because the horror of the situation would really depend on exactly how the law was interpreted, and because to be perfectly honest, your overblown paranoia about these sorts of things has always been strangely reassuring to me.

[Chaac]

Does SOPA affect only US sites or can they shut down sites everywhere?

[Marian Schedenig]

No , it means anyone can file a copyright infringement claim on a website and have it shut down, even if it's only a SUSPICION of infringement. Also LINKING to illegal files will become illegal

Guilty until proven innocent. Just what the content industry wants.