Bill S. 978

[Erii]

The United States Senate is in the process of considering bill S.978, a bill “To amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright,” or as you might know it, the Anti-Streaming Bill. There’s been some discussion about what it really means and how it would affect stuff we care about, so I’d like to clear everything up. To be blunt, if passed it would pretty significantly reconfigure American copyright law in ways that could honestly really hurt internet culture in general and our video game communities specifically. So what does it do? Its stated purpose is to attack the online streaming of copyrighted works, specifically films and live television. It tries to do this by criminalizing some electronically transmitted (read: internet) public performances of copyrighted works. Background: the law is split into criminal law and civil law. In (very) short, criminal is for things designated as crimes (like murder and theft), can involve jail time, and is handled by the government, whereas civil law covers everything else, doesn’t involve the risk of jail, and can only be sued over by whatever entity actually got screwed. Copyright law has both criminal and civil law sides, but with a few significant exceptions copyright mostly sticks to civil law in practice. That means that only the copyright owner can sue you for infringement, and the worst thing that can usually happen is that you either get a cease and desist letter and stop what you’re doing or you pay the copyright owner some dough. While that can be really costly (up to $150k per infringement, although that’s very uncommon), you can’t get sent to jail. so this is a [crazy] bill that is pending right now, I highly doubt this will get passed, but it's still interesting. It would kill the internet. here is a few links with more info, that quote was just part of the first link: “Tolling the Stream” (Be Jailed for Streaming?) by UltraDavid « Shoryuken Jailed for Streaming? Bill S.978 May Make it a Reality.

[Puffin]

It would only make things like streaming and torrenting videos more secretive and widespread. People would get pretty mad and backlash at the bill...

[Erii]

It would only make things like streaming and torrenting videos more secretive and widespread. People would get pretty mad and backlash at the bill... but i mean people wouldn't be able to show copyrighted things, no product reviews, video game walkthroughs, movie reviews, etc. etc. people would still do these though, they can't stop everyone. If the government is stupid enough to even consider this, they won't care if people backlash. Though it is highly unlikely this will pass, because so many people are against it.

[Descensus]

They need to get over themselves. This fixation with copyright is really annoying.

[Puffin]

but i mean people wouldn't be able to show copyrighted things, no product reviews, video game walkthroughs, movie reviews, etc. etc. people would still do these though, they can't stop everyone. If the government is stupid enough to even consider this, they won't care if people backlash. Though it is highly unlikely this will pass, because so many people are against it. Yeah. You make a good point; half of the internet would be 'shut down'. They need to get over themselves. This fixation with copyright is really annoying. It drives me crazy, even when I'm just uploading a music video to youtube. "Oh, sorry, even though we know you're not stealing this content or claiming it as your own, your video has been blocked worldwide." Yeah, fuck you too, youtube copyright garbage. =/

[Erii]

Yeah. You make a good point; half of the internet would be 'shut down'. i can imagine just imagine the uproar right now...

[Puffin]

I couldn't keep my avatar or DJ banners up, for starters. I'd be pissed; 99% of the images I use come from 'copyrighted' things. People who make their living from review sites and stuff, and then some... Oh, man...

[Descensus]

I would hope people would just start publishing things under Creative Commons or some sort of anti-IP movement would erupt should this bill pass (doubt it).

[Puffin]

I would hope people would just start publishing things under Creative Commons or some sort of anti-IP movement would erupt should this bill pass (doubt it). Creative Commons isn't that bad; I [might] be able to live with that. At least it's not a "criminal penalty" death trap.

[Erii]

I couldn't keep my avatar or DJ banners up, for starters. I'd be pissed; 99% of the images I use come from 'copyrighted' things. People who make their living from review sites and stuff, and then some... Oh, man... ugh I know D: it would be terrible. And exactly, think of the people who are partners on youtube and do reviews, or makeup stuff, or videogame walkthroughs and reviews, etc. that's a source of their money, lost.

[Jeff777]

They need to get over themselves. This fixation with copyright is really annoying. Lol and suddenly a music producer calls you up and tells you they lost a bet with their friends and had to listen to your demo tape. After listening to it, he's realized the error of his ways and wants to sign you to INTERSCOPE RECORDS BY TOMORROW MORNING. You jetset around the world meeting hot models while performing your music at sold out concerts in new york, california, dubai and other hot shit areas. You're a millionaire and the world knows your name.. ..Then you feel nostalgic and decide to revisit dreamviews. You stumble back upon this thread and read your first comment in it.

[dajo]

so what? most musicians get a fraction of the record sales. Most goes to the middle men. Live performances are the kicker.

[Xei]

Copyright is a good thing and we wouldn't have modern civilisation without it; people shouldn't let extortions of the concept like Monsanto suing farmers for their wheat spreading to their farms confuse them about that. It's perfectly possible to have sensible copyright laws that allow for parody, reviews, or general not-for-profit use of IP, which seems to be the main objection here. I'm not sure on what basis people can object to a restriction on distributing and/or selling films that you didn't make, though.

[tommo]

but i mean people wouldn't be able to show copyrighted things, no product reviews, video game walkthroughs, movie reviews, etc. etc. people would still do these though, they can't stop everyone. This is just ridiculous. No company is going to care if people review their products. It's literally free advertising for them. It's where most games and technology get their advertising. It is acceptable to use copyrighted things for review purposes. And in the case of movies, sections of it. I haven't actually read this yet, but if this new bill somehow is trying to stop even that currently allowed use, well then ignore this post lol Also, It drives me crazy, even when I'm just uploading a music video to youtube. "Oh, sorry, even though we know you're not stealing this content or claiming it as your own, your video has been blocked worldwide." Yeah, fuck you too, youtube copyright garbage. =/ It's not youtube. Youtube doesn't care. They only ever do anything if a company complains about it. You don't seriously expect them to ignore it and lose tonnes of money just so people can put copyrighted material up do you?

[Xei]

This is just ridiculous. No company is going to care if people review their products. Um.

[Erii]

This is just ridiculous. No company is going to care if people review their products. This is just ridiculous. No company is going to care if people review give good reviews of their products.

[Jeff777]

so what? most musicians get a fraction of the record sales. Most goes to the middle men. Live performances are the kicker. Film star then, my point remains the same. I would be pissed if I were a movie star and people were streaming my movies online to the point where I'd have to downgrade from a G6 jet to a G5.

[Marvo]

I wouldn't. Streaming movies is still wrong, unless permission is given, but I wouldn't be pissed if I had a private jet.

[DeletePlease]

Films are one thing but music and tv shows are another. It's utterly ridiculous when you see uploads of old albums being taken down because of copyright. That's the only way some of these projects are going to get exposure nowadays. I would never have gotten into BTNH, Wu Tang Clan, Prince, etc if their songs weren't all over the internet. I'm not going to go out and buy an album if I haven't sample any of it beforehand. And as for tv shows, just look at MLP: FiM. Most fans watch the episodes online because they either don't have the channel it airs on or because of conflicting schedules and time slots. It's the same way with many other tv shows, plenty of them owe their success to these streams. Hopefully this thing doesn't pass but if it does, I have no doubt an Anonymous operation will be carried out.

[Meakel]

This really shows how messed up copyright law are. Even without this new bill. Free Info Movement ftw. Artists, producers, whatever, should all have the right to sell their what they make. But they shouldn't be able to control it's distribution through non-profiting means. Also, if something like this actually passed...haha...it'd be such a clusterfuck.

[ooflendoodle]

This is only meant to stop pirating, if it actually does pass companies can change their policy to allow it on youtube etc. to negate the side effect of less publicity. I see no problem with letting it pass, it would help out all the artists.

[Erii]

This really shows how messed up copyright law are. Even without this new bill. Free Info Movement ftw. Artists, producers, whatever, should all have the right to sell their what they make. But they shouldn't be able to control it's distribution through non-profiting means. Also, if something like this actually passed...haha...it'd be such a clusterfuck. exactly lol This is only meant to stop pirating, if it actually does pass companies can change their policy to allow it on youtube etc. to negate the side effect of less publicity. I see no problem with letting it pass, it would help out all the artists. no even if the artist says its okay, it wouldn't be allowed, there is some video of a guy talking about this and he mentioned some guy who does cover songs and sometimes the artists are actually in the music video, but even that wouldn't be allowed.

[Meakel]

This is only meant to stop pirating, if it actually does pass companies can change their policy to allow it on youtube etc. to negate the side effect of less publicity. I see no problem with letting it pass, it would help out all the artists. I honestly dont see how this helps artists. If anything, 'piracy' helps sales.* *Study Finds Pirates Buy More Music Piracy Doubled My App Sales Online Anime Piracy Helping DVD Sales I really think that given a real choice, minus the recording companies and studios and such, every artist would rather everyone to be able to enjoy what they create rather then make a shit ton of money. They thought the VCR would kill movie theaters. They thought MP3's would kill CDs. And look at us now haha.

[Solarflare]

but i mean people wouldn't be able to show copyrighted things, no product reviews, video game walkthroughs, movie reviews, etc. etc. people would still do these though, they can't stop everyone. If the government is stupid enough to even consider this, they won't care if people backlash. Though it is highly unlikely this will pass, because so many people are against it. so pretty much nothing and no video game walkthroughs?????

[tommo]

This is just ridiculous. No company is going to care if people review give good reviews of their products. Oh, yeah you're right, that's a good point. Didn't really think of that lol Gavin - Regarding old movies. I was watching this one a while ago on youtube, it aired on free view television, as a straight to TV movie. Once. As far as I'm aware. You can't buy it anywhere either afaik. Warner Bros fucking disabled the sound in one of the parts because it contained a fucking nick cave song for like a minute out of the whole thing, and it was just quietly in the background. How fucked up can they be? Afaict warner bros is the absolute worst with this. They don't even realise how much fucking money they can make, and then people will STILL buy the CD's/movies. You get $2.50 for every 1000 views. All these pop songs and shit get MILLIONS of views. They could be making over $50,000 per video, when you look at some of the view counts. And that's assuming that youtube doesn't pay the bigger companies more.