New Bill Makes Illegal Streaming A Felony

[snfonseka]

Will this able to make any practical impact/ change to the current situation?

 

[Wolfram23]

IT's not illegal to download via bit torrent, its illegal to share via uploading. At least where im from anyway.

Canadian? I love our flimsy copyright laws.

 

[vxicepickxv]

So, Let's get this straight:

Streaming unlicensed copyright works off of YouTube can get you, potentially, five years inside.

No, how are you going to make profit just watching a video?

Whereas

Google, who owns of YouTube, hosts all of that unlicensed copyrighted content and earns revenue off the back of it in the form of advertising, is effectively immune from copyright claims.

Madness!

They don't advertise for every video. Hell, I'm turning into a brony watching the show ad free off youtube. If they had some ads, they probably would have been taken down by now.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

Wait I don't understand what's streaming...Apart from animes and southpark does watching song videos on youtube count as streaming?

 

[NightHawk21]

Government needs to keep their greedy, vile, prehistoric hands out of the internet. Honestly, do they have nothing better to do? Isn't their prison system full enough already that you're gonna throw people who watch TV online into jail for 5 years? Stupid meddling old politicians don't understand something but decide to ban it, because their greedy corporate sponsors can't bear the idea of losing a single penny on anything they've produced.

What also funny is that its to defend "their [Screen Actors Guild and the Director's Guild of America] member's livelihoods." Their goal is to defend people who off one or two somewhat difficult projects will come into more money than 99% of us will ever have. I'm sure they're taking a big hit.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

Sorry actors and actresses, but maybe if you weren't paid hundreds of thousands to millions per movie I might buy that statement, but seeing as how a lot of you are I don't.

That's only maybe 1% (2% if you're feeling generous) of actors that make that, and ONLY on major studio blockbusters. The overwhelming majority of actors make between $100-$150 per 16 hour day and are lucky to work one week per month (speaking as an actor here). Out of the millions of actors out there, only about 5% actually make their living off of it. 1% of those are the big-money stars.

Ok. You're right. It was a pretty bad generalization, but I'm willing to guess that when most Joe Blows such as myself think of actors, despite probably knowing they're not in the majority, think of those big name actors first.

But again, you're right, and I'm sorry for generalizing.

Nothing to apologize for. I'm just here to enlighten, not criticize =)

And you're right, when the subject of actors is brought up, 98% of people will think of the Brad Pitt's and Bruce Willis', as opposed to the more realistic figure of John Everyman who still work's at Applebee's in addition to acting (something I hope and intend to rise above in the not terribly distant future).

 

[aei_haruko]

I'm stunned, you mean doing illegal things will get you punished? Oh darn. Like seriously, we ACTUALLY are realizing that Illegal means " not legal". WOW. Like Illegal immigration, illegal downloading etc... I don't care what the circumstances are, if it's not legal, DON'T DO IT

 

[Canid117]

Does this mean we wont be able to upload full episodes of MLP:FIM to Youtube anymore?

 

[DocBalance]

I actually don't see much wrong with this. Sure, it could harm Youtube, but it also says that those not working to achieve financial gain have nothing to fear, and I can get behind that. Piracy for money is most definitely wrong.

 

[Xaio30]

Did no one read the part about people who "stream videos without intending to profit" won't have to worry about this law?

Seriously, read before you post.

 

[The Random One]

Wait wait wait wait. When he says people who stream for free will not be prosecuted, does he mean the laws only applies to for-profit streaming, or that the law makes no distincition but they will be nice and not prosecute hobbyists? That's a big fucking difference right there.

 

[stutheninja]

id just like to know how they plan on enforcing this law, it's impossible to regulate the internet in this way and i don't know why they keep insisting on trying to in such a fashion

 

[PrinceofPersia]

First of all, congratulations on making a law that has everyone scratching their heads about what it actually means.

1) Anyone watching a streamed video that isn't profiting from it isn't doing anything illegal, according to the law.
2) This will only apply in America, which means that you will be spending an ungodly amount of the tax payers money and your own time trying to catch someone watching TV shows/movies that are not or no longer available where they live.
3) These companies are already losing tons of money because of Digital recording devices and rental shops. What's being done about them?

God damn it, guys. When are you going to realize that you're hemorrhaging money on the bloody actors! CUT THEIR PAY AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS. If normal people can survive on 20.000 bucks per year, I'm sure that actors and actresses can cut a couple of million from their pay. Or singers for that matter. I'm positive that if you no longer give Justin Bieber any more money, he'll still be able to live till he's 80 and not work another day in his life. That's just plain retarded.

Once you've fixed that, only THEN are you allowed to even think about bitching about the people streaming videos.

Remember the really old days when all you had to do is provide food and lodging for a bard or minstrel and you would have a day or more of entertainment? I'd like that idea as it frees up income to be given to teachers, fire fighters, police, and soldiers cause you know they protect and educate us. But that's my opinion take it for what you will.

 

[godfist88]

Does this mean we wont be able to upload full episodes of MLP:FIM to Youtube anymore?

probably, it's a sad day when the internet is devoid of ponies.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

So do we get cyber police now to catch these streamers?

Only if they back-trace it. Then, the consequences will never be the same.

OT: This sounds good if it punishes those who intend to make money off of other's hard work. Zero sympathy for those who break the law.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Wait I don't understand what's streaming...Apart from animes and southpark does watching song videos on youtube count as streaming?

Yes it is streaming. Watching the streaming isn't illegal(yet). Hosting a TV show is illegal unless you have permission(which can get weird if you look at some shows like a sports countdown featuring multiple sports from say ESPN, because you need a permission from each broadcast, plus ESPN's permission).

If you're not doing it for profit, for the most part it's shown as support. If you watch a music video by a band, then you're showing interest, so they host songs. I'm actually kind of shocked that most TV series don't have a few episodes floating around here and there, with links to places you can order them online and be shipped to you. Kind of weird nobody thought about that yet.

 

[CD-R]

My only concern is exactly how they plan on consistently getting this information and how easy it is to mess with IP addresses to get others in trouble, from using proxies to using your neighbor's internet, it just seems like it'd be more trouble than its worth to actually enforce unless they set up some online stings or something.

Extremely easy actually. People can just tap into a person's unsecured wifi and do all sorts of illegal stuff with little to no effort. There was actually a court ruling that stated an IP address alone can't be used to ID someone. Which makes me a little curious as to how they are going to enforce these ridiculous laws.

 

[teebeeohh]

so why isn't there a paid streaming service for customers outside the US?
you could make tons of money of people who don't want to wait for dvds. And right now there is no legal alternative.

 

[vxicepickxv]

so why isn't there a paid streaming service for customers outside the US?
you could make tons of money of people who don't want to wait for dvds. And right now there is no legal alternative.

I imagine a very large part of it has to do with languages. It's a lot harder to set up for a large number of countries with a variety of languages spoken. I also imagine that the MPAA and TV equivalent would want larger sums of money for their products.

 

[icame]

All the anime I watch is from funimations own site so... I'm good?