loophole in the streaming media law has been closed by the US Senate, which could land culprits in prison for up to 5 years. They have approved a bill making it a felony to stream copyrighted content that was unlawfully obtained.
Illegal streaming could lead to jail
The bill which is called the Commercial Felony Streaming Act, aims to “reconcile a disparity†between current streaming laws and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. The current ‘loophole’ makes a crime of downloading or uploading copyrighted material, but streaming is not prohibited.
The bill will make it illegal to stream illegally obtained media for commercial purposes, and comes with the threat of a five years sentence. The bill says 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.â€
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NEW YORK (MainStreet) — The federal government has taken the war against digital piracy to the next level by cracking down on websites that stream copyrighted videos without permission.
This week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would amend existing copyright law to make it a felony punishable by jail time for a website to stream (or broadcast) movies without permission.
Until now, it has been considered a felony to illegally reproduce or distribute copyrighted works by downloading them, but streaming has been classified as a “performance†rather than distribution and has therefore been exempt from this rule.
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The new bill, which must still be approved by the full Senate, would change the standard to include those websites that make a business out of streaming video. If a website streams 10 or more videos in a six-month period, and if the value of the broadcast is worth more than $2,500 and the value of the copyright licenses are worth more than $5,000, the owners would be subject to as much as five years in jail.
“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,“ the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement in conjunction with the American Federation of Musicians and several other entertainment groups after the bill was approved. “This legislation is an important step forward in our efforts to stem the rising tide of Internet theft that threatens our members’ very livelihoods.â€
Illegal downloading has been on the decline, but as MainStreet has reported previously, much of this can be attributed to the rise of streaming services – many of them legal – like Netflix and Pandora that allow users to get much of the same entertainment for free or through a small subscription fee.
In recent months, legislators have become more aggressive in trying to police the streaming market and choke off what may be one of the last strongholds for digital piracy. The Obama administration released a lengthy wish list of intellectual property regulations in March, which included a recommendation to make streaming copyrighted videos a felony.
While supporters of the measure emphasize its potential impact on websites that stream movies for commercial gain, if the bill is passed, ordinary consumers who play the movies at home could also be at risk.
At the very least, this measure will likely provide a boost in demand for the already growing number of sites that stream videos and movies legally.Streaming Movies Illegally May Soon Be a Felony______________________________________________________________
