full text of the bill
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This is a BAD bill. It severely limits free speech in this country. It is so poorly and loosley written that any blogger that say upsets a republican state attorney general could find themselves prosecuted and jailed for 5 years; simply for posting a u-tube video!! It could be a video the district attorneys post themselves! They claim it's not directed towards individuals, there is nothing in the bill that specifies that. The word "performance" is not defined, they could easily come up with a price of 250 dollars for each playing of the video, then 10 people that clicked on that video, 2500 dollars total, and you have just committed a felony.
from Ethan Siegal@ Startswithabang.com:
And now, thanks to new legislation in the U.S. Senate -- introduced by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar -- I am likely to soon become a criminal for it. Not a misdemeanor offender, either, but a full-blown felon. The kind where I can go to prison for a long time, lose my right to vote, etc.
My great offense? Embedding a copyrighted work. For a youtube video, do it ten times in six months, and you can be a felon under U.S. Law, too.
What does it take to make me a felon? Well, did you click on the video above? If you -- and ten others like you -- click on it, and that video gets taken down later, at some point, due to a copyright infringement, I am responsible, and that's going to be a felony offense under U.S. Law.
Sound insane? Stupid? Evil? That doesn't mean this bipartisan bill isn't well on its way to becoming a law. But don't take my word for it. Read the awful piece of legislation, U.S. Senate Bill 978, yourself. You'll see very clearly that the punishment for this offense is a hefty fine and up to five years in prison. For embedding a youtube video, among other things.
What's really awful about this is that it could happen even if Rebecca Loebe is very happy to have her video appear on this site. It could happen even if NBC is very happy to have the advertising for their show, "The Voice," on this site. It could happen because a company like Comcast doesn't like it, or because the RIAA doesn't like it, or because any one of a number of music or media companies doesn't like it. As long as it can be legally construed as a "public performance of a copyrighted work," you could go to prison for it.
Senator Amy Klobuchar contact information:
D.C. office phone: 202-224-3244
D.C. office fax: 202-228-2186
Email senator Klobuchar
Please write your own senators
Image via WikipediaThis is a BAD bill. It severely limits free speech in this country. It is so poorly and loosley written that any blogger that say upsets a republican state attorney general could find themselves prosecuted and jailed for 5 years; simply for posting a u-tube video!! It could be a video the district attorneys post themselves! They claim it's not directed towards individuals, there is nothing in the bill that specifies that. The word "performance" is not defined, they could easily come up with a price of 250 dollars for each playing of the video, then 10 people that clicked on that video, 2500 dollars total, and you have just committed a felony.
from Ethan Siegal@ Startswithabang.com:
And now, thanks to new legislation in the U.S. Senate -- introduced by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar -- I am likely to soon become a criminal for it. Not a misdemeanor offender, either, but a full-blown felon. The kind where I can go to prison for a long time, lose my right to vote, etc.
My great offense? Embedding a copyrighted work. For a youtube video, do it ten times in six months, and you can be a felon under U.S. Law, too.
What does it take to make me a felon? Well, did you click on the video above? If you -- and ten others like you -- click on it, and that video gets taken down later, at some point, due to a copyright infringement, I am responsible, and that's going to be a felony offense under U.S. Law.
Sound insane? Stupid? Evil? That doesn't mean this bipartisan bill isn't well on its way to becoming a law. But don't take my word for it. Read the awful piece of legislation, U.S. Senate Bill 978, yourself. You'll see very clearly that the punishment for this offense is a hefty fine and up to five years in prison. For embedding a youtube video, among other things.
What's really awful about this is that it could happen even if Rebecca Loebe is very happy to have her video appear on this site. It could happen even if NBC is very happy to have the advertising for their show, "The Voice," on this site. It could happen because a company like Comcast doesn't like it, or because the RIAA doesn't like it, or because any one of a number of music or media companies doesn't like it. As long as it can be legally construed as a "public performance of a copyrighted work," you could go to prison for it.
Senator Amy Klobuchar contact information:
D.C. office phone: 202-224-3244
D.C. office fax: 202-228-2186
Email senator Klobuchar
Please write your own senators
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