Gamers' Advocacy Group to Fight Anti-Streaming Bill

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Good going there America.

Land of the free indeed...

This law should never pass, but I got an ugly feeling that it will.
Shame.

And I've got an ugly feeling that the prescient set down south will spread North to here in Canada. And that would make Redlin unhappy.

 

[bombadilillo]

Is this just not a case of the wording of a law encompassing something it didnt intend? Happens a lot in new media. They will change it or get it overruled by courts.

 

[Alphakirby]

And message sent.
Now I have just gotten us one step closer to keeping this bill from existing!

 

[Nikolaz72]

The people with the copyright should have the power.

This will give them the power.

If a company wants to let you stream their product, it is their right to say yay nor nay, not yours.

EDIT: "Video games are ART! Video games should be treated the same as movies and Music!"

Here ya go... not happy??

No, because you have to play a game to experience it. Just watching it doesn't cut it with games. This is a stupid law designed to protect the copyright holders from nothing. More and more laws each days are about protecting the rich and powerful and taking away the rights of consumers. If you support this, you are naive. It's because of people like you these guys always get what they want.

What about story heavy games? What reason would you have to buy and play through a Pheonix Wright game if you've already watched someone play through all of the story? Yea, you weren't personally puzzling out how to solve the case but once you've seen it solved it's not like you can get that experience even if you do get the game.

I played Phoenix Wright after seeing someone play through the whole second. I played 1, 2, 3,4 and investigations

 

[Matthew Lynch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j57sFprvSeI look at this link. This seemed to clear up mot of the fact from fiction about this bill.

 

[duchaked]

maybe they just really really hate Machinima and RoosterTeeth...

 

[Me55enger]

We in Britain are lucky insofar as our government are too embroiled in creating a war against News Corporation and one Mr. Murdoch for Video games to be an issue.

But perhaps the culture difference will mean we wont have such a volatile issue as this.

Still, in the words of everybody's favorite gunman:

"Hell, I didn't fight in no war. Best of luck though."

 

[Woeps]

Dude... Just don't get caught.

No but seriously, I don't think that it will affect all the let's play and other streamed / shared media at all.
At worst they will pick a few out of the crowd to make an example of but I don't even think that this bill will be accepted as a law.

Though I could be wrong

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I can just picture 4 guys sitting in prison.

"So what did you guys do?"
"I stabbed my neighbour!"
"I beat my wife to death!"
"I uploaded a video of me doing really good on Peggle."

Or Police wasting their time raiding the house of someone uploading a tomahawk montage while somewhere some woman is getting mugged.

 

[Matthew Lynch]

I can just picture 4 guys sitting in prison.

"So what did you guys do?"
"I stabbed my neighbour!"
"I beat my wife to death!"
"I uploaded a video of me doing really good on Peggle."

Or Police wasting their time raiding the house of someone uploading a tomahawk montage while somewhere some woman is getting mugged.

Thats why this bill won't pass. Imagine the scandal for the US government and the FBI (who are too busy going after real criminals anyway to care about this insult to free speech) if the news reports a 13 year old being given 5 years for posting a homemade music video on youtube?..a video she was making no profit off?

Part of the law says that, not only must you have more then 10 people watching over 180 days, but you must have made $2,500 and caused the parent company to lose $5000.

Not to mention that, if similar laws like PROTECT-IP and COICA couldn;t get past congress, why would you think this would? Calm down and watch the video I posted earlier.

Finally, passing this bill will be practically a decleration of war to Anonamous and Lulsec

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I can just picture 4 guys sitting in prison.

"So what did you guys do?"
"I stabbed my neighbour!"
"I beat my wife to death!"
"I uploaded a video of me doing really good on Peggle."

Or Police wasting their time raiding the house of someone uploading a tomahawk montage while somewhere some woman is getting mugged.

Thats why this bill won't pass. Imagine the scandal for the US government and the FBI (who are too busy going after real criminals anyway to care about this insult to free speech) if the news reports a 13 year old being given 5 years for posting a homemade music video on youtube?..a video she was making no profit off?

Part of the law says that, not only must you have more then 10 people watching over 180 days, but you must have made $2,500 and caused the parent company to lose $5000.

Not to mention that, if similar laws like PROTECT-IP and COICA couldn;t get past congress, why would you think this would? Calm down and watch the video I posted earlier.

Finally, passing this bill will be practically a decleration of war to Anonamous and Lulsec

I'm not worried about it. I live in the UK so I have no reason to be worried.

 

[generalg29]

fuck anyone who's ok with this

 

[Vkmies]

I am not american so I dont have to care for shit, but currently this is what I believe.
http://screwattack.com/blogs/RPG-Fanatic-Blog/Bill-S978-Misrepresentations-Doomsaying-and-Real-Facts

 

[Weaver]

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

[K4RN4GE911]

If this bill passes, wouldn't youtube channels like Machinima and the like just die?

 

[lord.jeff]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j57sFprvSeI look at this link. This seemed to clear up mot of the fact from fiction about this bill.

Thanks for this link, finally someone not giving a huge rage rant and just giving facts plus links to the full bill which I couldn't find last time I saw this topic.

 

[Jenx]

Soo, US Anarchists - you guys planning on bombing the fuck out of Washington DC or not?

Morbid humor aside, this whole thing just makes my brain hurt. I live in a country with an absurdly corrupt and yet somehow amazingly inept and powerless government, potholes on the streets you can fucking die into and criminals running everything that matters.....and yet I actually feel sorry for you guys!

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

It astounds me how blatantly ignorant this legislation is.

Its basically useless, because it does absolutely nothing to give the copywrite holder anything.

And while we are at it.. Is it not funny how if you were to steal a copy of a game, film, album, book, in physical format it would be considered a misdemeanor, however if you stream or download the exact same thing your life is essentially ruined with a felony charge. (because once youve served your sentence for a felony, it basically destroys your ability to get a job, make a living, support yourself, basically be anything but a drain on society, etc.)

So the moral of the story is, If you steal something from someone or a store, its no where near as bad because either the owner or the store have already purchased it from the publisher. But if you infringe on the copywrite, your directly taking money out of that publishers pocket, so you must be made to pay to the point you wish you were dead.

Sounds an awful lot like the using litigation to protect corporate interests. But yeah, lets make sure we protect those poor poor publishing corporations even beyond what falls within the standing of "usual" punishment.

Absolutely, positively agreed! That is precisely the problem with many "criminal" activities in general (i.e. Punishment WTF?) that pervade the United States, and this bill is no different. A felony for what is bits of data that one merely watches?!? As you state, what of those who actually steal physical merchandise in "real life?" Surely one could argue that is by far a greater offense, whereas I see no feasible reason that a Youtube video could undermine a publisher, let alone affect their profits beyond infinitesimal percentages (possible for the better, no less).


But my overall feeling? The U.S. government: STAY OUT OF THE INTERNET. It is nice here without you, and that is all.

What I find most outrageous is that clearly this is legislation put forth by corporate interests that will be our dime as tax payers just to see the legal process through. Shouldn't the nation focus its "internet policing" on issues that could actually help everyone (e.g. hackers, cyber-crime, ect.) or, crazy as it sounds, work out the plethora of issues of high importance? As with the California Law, I am left curious as to the priorities of politicians given the state of affairs across the country. The Economy, education, military spending -- there isn't even a need to list the obvious "should be" priorities over a damned video game or youtube video. In this case, the internet is an especially wide battlefield and the idea of the government trying to throw themselves into the fray is ludicrous given the circumstances.

But here is what I really want to know:

How can this Anti-Streaming nonsense possibly land someone a felony charge, But GE got away without paying taxes? Just one of many questions of a similar nature, really.

 

[captainwalrus]

There's a lot of focus on YouTube here, but the bill is so vague that it could reach well beyond YouTube. Restaurants wouldn't be able to play music without getting radio licenses. Airplanes wouldn't be able to show movies on long flights. Playing music at your parties could land you in jail. If you want to go to Wal-Mart to buy a shiny new tv the only thing they'll be playing to show the picture quality is public domain stuff like To Kill A Mockingbird or stuff produced by Wal-Mart itself.

All of those things are already regulated under current copyright law. Some of them are exceptions under copyright law (eg. playing music in a restaurant is not considered infringement, playing music at a party falls under private use). I'm pretty sure airlines buy copies of movies specifically licensed for public viewing. And I'm not sure about Wal-Mart, but I'm pretty sure there's an exception for something like that.

All this law is doing is bringing streaming of copyrighted works in line with the current copyright law. And it's not like the government is going to crack down on people for uploading Starcraft VODs or whatever. The way copyright protection works right now is that the government will generally not act on any cases of copyright infringement unless the copyright holders, themselves, bring up specific charges to the government to pursue. Game developers and gamers have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to things like Let's Play or VODs or Machinima. The game gets more exposure and the gamers form a stronger community. It's a win-win. Developers won't go out on anti-copyright infringement crusades if this passes. That would be suicide.

There's a lot of bullshit out there about this bill and this is probably the best explanation of what this bill is all about:

I am not american so I dont have to care for shit, but currently this is what I believe.
http://screwattack.com/blogs/RPG-Fanatic-Blog/Bill-S978-Misrepresentations-Doomsaying-and-Real-Facts

 

[Matthew Lynch]

I am not american so I dont have to care for shit, but currently this is what I believe.
http://screwattack.com/blogs/RPG-Fanatic-Blog/Bill-S978-Misrepresentations-Doomsaying-and-Real-Facts

Well done, Man. Nice to see someone else who actually did research before panicking. I don't get where all these horror story ideas of 'They'll make posting on youtube illegal' or 'It'll make Deviantart illegal'. Its nuts.