S.978: A bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright, and for other... OpenCongress: "OpenCongress Summary
Makes unauthorized web streaming of copyrighted content a felony with a possible penalty of up to 5 years in prison. Illegal streaming of copyrighted content is defined in the bill as an offense that 'consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works' and has a total economic value, either to the copyright holder or the infringer, of at least $2,500."
Now, that's not that bad. That bit stated there sounds well and good. It's basically cracking down on people who are posting music videos or what not to the internet which are then ripped off the sites. It's just another form of piracy that's being cracked down on (I'll reserve my views on the matter of piracy for another time). So what's all this nonsense about killing the video gaming community? Well, essentially what happens is this. You put a video that contains game play footage up on your site. Someone gets pissy because that footage is from a game that you have to pay for in order to play, and there for see. You're now guilty of having streamed copyrighted content as a public performance by electronic means. Do that 9 more times in under 180 days, or simply put the same one back up and you're fucked. Not just legally and financially fucked, proper fucked. You're in a prison, possibly for 5 years, getting hammered in the ass by your cell mate Curtis, and Curtis thinks your nerdy gamer look is hot.
That's a bit of an exaggeration, in all likelihood you'll be slapped with a fine and forced to take your things down, but Curtis isn't the real problem here. The problem is that this isn't something that should be outlawed. We've been posting shit that happens in video games for years! Where would Nico Nico Douga be with out Geddan? Where would Haloz be with out Ocarina of Time Can-Can Remixes or Vicious Cycle Loops? Where would Machinima be with out, well, anything on their site at all?! It'd all just be boring walls of text like some kind of shitty blog! No one wants to read blogs anymore, especially if they don't have COOL PHOTOS!
So maybe it's not all that bad? Maybe I'm just getting worked up over nothing. Well, that's the point of internet blogs. We're supposed to get worked up over things that could be detrimental. Especially this particular blog. The point is to inform you when shit is going down that could cause problems for you, or me, or all of us.
So what should you do about this? Well, you can start by reading more about it. That links you to the website of the guy who cosponsored that bill, the other sponsor of the bill Amy Klobuchar, is linked in the block quote at the beginning of the article. If you want to harass them, check out their Vote Smart pages, here for Coons and here for Klobuchar.
For those of you who don't know, Project Vote Smart is a website that has all the information anyone would need to know about ANYONE in an elected position in the government. It has everything from their party affiliations, the record of how they've voted since they came into office, their biographies, their personal websites and contact information, even a survey they fill out that gauges their position on the issues. It's all non partisan and very professional. I'll explain more in an article written just about it, but it's an amazing resource for educating yourself on the government so you can do something about it with out having to read newspapers constantly.
What?! 75% of Americans think we should eat babies?!
After you've read about the bill and harassed Senators Coons and Klobuchar, hit up this page to send a prefabricated email to your state's law makers. I would recommend actually doing some research on this stuff first and not just skipping right to the email part. Actually, edit the email they have prefabricated for you to say something more specific about what it is that you have a problem with and what you want them to do about it. As a blog geared towards making you think about things rather than just accepting them, we'd be remiss if we asked you to blindly sign something or just make some noise about something with out understanding what it is that you're supporting or opposing. Especially with politics, it's more important for you to understand the things that are going on in your government than it is to do something about them. That doesn't sound quite right. What I mean to say is that it's better for you to understand that something is going on in the government and with that informed mind set decide that doing nothing is the best course of action that it is for you to have no idea what is going on and impulsively sign a petition that might end up conflicting with your personal views on the matter. Lets not forget the ordeals we've had in the past, especially in Florida, where people have blindly agreed to things simply because we didn't have the time to understand what it was we were being asked to vote on.
I guess I want to not eat babies on this not un-day
I can't provide you with a complete picture on this issue. I have my own biases and blind spots that makes it impossible to give you a full understanding of this issue from both sides. What I'm hoping you'll take away from this, and any future political pieces that I post, is my view on the situation and enough information and drive to do further research on your own. It's important that we stop issues when they're still easy to stop, rather than trying to revert them after they've been situated firmly in the law books. As you may know, laws in effect aren't changed unless someone breaks them and challenges it. When that happens they run the risk of having shit in the record for the rest of their life, as well as having to pony up money for legal fees and dealing with the time drain that comes with legal battles. I'm just trying to make sure that there's enough awareness about this issue so that anyone who is concerned with it has the chance to do something about it now while it's relatively easy to do so.
For more information on this and other legal issues up on the block, head to OpenCongress and hit the "All Legislation in Congress" link (or use my links). Open Congress is another great site, like Vote Smart, that can really help keep you up to date about what's going on in the government right now.
Gamma, OUT!
