There is a bill in the U.S. Senate, SB 978, designed to, alledgedly, increase the protection for copyright. However, what it does in effect is criminalize a lot of behaviour. If this bill is passed in its current form, if you imbed a video on a site such as youtube, and 10 or more people view it, and the copyright holder complains, you could end up in prison for up to 5 years on federal charges. Sounds a bit draconian to me.

This bill effectively makes criminals out of people who today aren't. Your son or daughter could be denied a chance for a college degree, a good job, etc. because they posted a music video on youtube. Its kind of like the Napster case on steroids. Currently, copyright material that is posted without permission is removed upon complaint/request of the copyright holder. Sometimes the copyright holder sues for damages. It all goes through civil court.

If this bill passes in its current form, the person posting the material now will be subject to criminal proceedings as well as civil. And who will suffer the brunt of this? Mostly kids, young people who share, not for profit, but because they want to share what they enjoy. It is even worse that criminalizing the personal use of marijuana.

Now I am not saying that copyright violaters should not be subject to sanctions, but those sanctions should remain civil, not criminal. This is another case of government getting way to big and becoming more and more willing to become oppressive and totalitarian.

Read the complete article in InfoWars, including the links that it references. And don't let the federal government criminalize another behaviour that isn't, especially when it will have little effect on the biggest offenders of copyright, those that reside in countries such as China that do not recognize, or only provide token recognition, of U.S. copyrights.

Its already illegal to share your Netflix password in Tennessee. Theoretically, it would require a family of 4 to have 4 different accounts if each person wanted to watch movies separately. Of course, the legislature there said that prosecuting a family for violating the law "probably" wouldn't happen".

Yeah! Sure!

But some of us here on Active Rain will be criminals, maybe unconvicted, if this passes.

 

 

 
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63 Comments on Embed a Youtube Video and Spend 5 Years in Prison? It Could Happen Under SB 978

20 Most Recent Comments Displayed Show All

JUN
05
2011
1,499,868 Points 354 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Mike...

It's scary when you think about it. We are already near bankruptcy, and how much will this cost to enforce?
8:15am • #44
231,678 Points 8 Featured Posts Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Wow! It sounds like we are taking a few steps backwards with this. Maybe we should just go back to pad and pen. 
8:46am • #45
445,301 Points 5 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog

Mike, how long is it going to take before right-thinking Americans get sick & tired of this kind of government bullying?
8:52am • #46
329,680 Points 5 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

To reiterate, this bill does NOTHING to criminalize the embedding of AUTHORIZED youtube videos, it simply protects copyrighted material from streaming. The article from info-wars is a misrepresentation.

Again, it appears to me that it would only make unauthorized use of "copyrighted" material subject to penalty and expands it to 'streaming.'  OK, so if the law passes (the bill is not even out of committee yet) then streaming video will be protected just like anything else that's copyrighted.  Since most people want their videos to 'go viral' they would, presumably, authorize embedding, so I don't see a whole lot of problems.
10:02am • #47
761,437 Points 61 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Seems to contradict itself.  The whole "going viral" thing is exactly what people want when they post a video???
10:06am • #48
136,921 Points Outside Blog

Interesting - and still wondering why our country is heading in this direction. I can understand part of the concept - but think the majority of it is silly. Most of all, why should it be handled as a criminal and not civil? But I am not a lawyer.
10:17am • #49
730,035 Points 15 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Mike, I agree with Karl (#47). Not a big deal if you are authorizing embedding the video. There would be a problem with people authorizing embedding uploaded copyrighted material though.
10:18am • #50
652,818 Points 9 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

This does not make a lot of sense.  You can mark the video private if you dont want to being shared...I guess now I am scared to share video.
10:44am • #51

Mike, very interesting information, scary as we all have done this.  We will have to be extra careful......
10:45am • #52
838,594 Points 69 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

It was bound to happen sooner or later...I mean the government gets involved and then things start to go south and make no sense. I know that they are eying all the revenue that can be garnered from the Internet in the form of licensing and taxation, but cant sink their teeth into it just yet...But anything this successful attracts revenue takers and shakers....good post Mike and thank you
10:57am • #53
759,096 Points 13 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Poorly crafted laws can be used by folks with bad intentions to the detriment of our freedom and liberty. I think your post is well done and points out the potential for abuse of this pending lesislation
11:22am • #54
484,140 Points 5 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Called Shot Master

Not something I practice anyway, but good to know. I do somewhat agree with the bill but prison is not the right way to resolve it if they move forward and sign off. As usual technology is way ahead of controls.
11:45am • #55
466,170 Points 50 Featured Posts Called Shot Master

Thanks for the timely post. I embed youtube videos on occasion so perhaps I will think twice about doing so in the future. Maybe youtube should remove the embed html code from videos then, making it impossible to embed a video outside the individual who loaded it.

Embeding youtube videos a criminal offense? When will the controlling people stop trying to control everyone else?
1:19pm • #56
262,261 Points 4 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

WOW!!  what is crazy is that youtube allows you to embed it, hence technically giving you permission.  or i would think. 
1:29pm • #57
1,352,174 Points 42 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Mike - This makes much more sense to me as a civil rather than a criminal matter.
5:54pm • #58

This action is probably being driven by the Motion Picture and the Record Industry, but wait the Patriot Act was renewed last week with out a peep from folks, so.....

 

 
6:04pm • #59
813,242 Points 243 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Ridiculous, and also CURIOUS. Id embedding a video is so wrong, why then do they ALLOW it? It would seem to me that the copyright holder can simply disable embedding. 
11:09pm • #60
JUN
06
2011
563,876 Points 17 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

All - copyright infringement is a serious issue and should be treated as such. However, I, like many here apparantly, feel it should be treated more as a civil issue and not criminal, except in some very narrow instances (i.e. - blatant widespread piracy). It is poorly written and overly broad legislation that will certainly be abused. Thanks for all the comments.

And it is symptomatic of the criminalization of what should not be criminalized. Just look at what the TSA is doing with their antics in airports that would get anyone else thrown into prison for sexual assault. It didn't take too long for the TSA to stat becoming abusive, how long will it take here.
8:05am • #61
AUG
24
2011
1,949,535 Points 478 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

I noticed a bill in Congress about 3 years to criminalize any copyright violations.  I didn't believe it would go anywhere.  Look like it's been dug up and revived.
6:38pm • #62
AUG
25
2011
563,876 Points 17 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Lenn - as you can tell by my post, I am against an omnibus/blanket approach to this. There should definitely be criminal charges for certain copyright violations, but, for a casual violation, mostly out of ignorance, it should only be civil. IMHO. Its kind of like giving the marijuana user the same penalties as the heavy dealer.
4:53pm • #63

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