https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/felony-penalties-proposed-illegal-streaming-senateEfforts to harness law enforcement resources in the service of copyright enforcement continue apace.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/05/protect-ip-act-coica-redux Last Thursday, the so-called "illegal streaming” bill
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s978rs/pdf/BILLS-112s978rs.pdf passed the Senate Judiciary Committee (although that's still some way away from becoming law). The bill would increase criminal copyright penalties to allow jail time of up to five years for infringing a copyright by “publicly performing” the copyrighted work, such as playing a sporting event broadcast or motion picture. (Currently, the maximum criminal penalty for unlawful public performance is a fine and/or prison sentence of up to one year.) Fortunately, there are limitations on when the new criminal penalties would apply. For example, only 10 or more unlawful public performances within a 180-day period would trigger the provisions. In addition, the current criminal statute contains basic thresholds such as a requirement that the infringement be willful.
The basis for the bill appears to derive from a list of legislative requests
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/obama-ip-czar-wants-felony-charges-for-illegal-web-streaming.ars issued earlier this year by the Obama Administration’s IP Enforcement Coordinator, including a recommendation to establish that online streaming of infringing content can be punished as a felony. The push to increase penalties from misdemeanor (which they are now) to felony (which they would be under the bill) apparently is being driven in part by a
http://www.mpaa.org//Resources/2f0f3647-2403-40cd-9638-16ee42ec8373.pdf belief
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/Pallante0612011.pdf that law enforcement will be more motivated to prosecute crimes that have more severe penalties, no matter that the criminal laws are supposed to be designed to deter and punish bad guys, not instigate good guys. We have to question the judiciousness of devoting spare government resources to prosecuting this kind of activity. It seems to us that illegal public performance is the kind of economic concern that can be effectively managed through existing civil remedies. Moreover, criminal copyright prosecutions need to show all the elements of civil copyright infringement, something civil courts are traditionally much better versed in.
In general, a “public performance” of a work under the Copyright Act occurs when a work is performed before a substantial gathering of people (for example, a concert) or when the work is transmitted in a way that it can be accessed by members of the public, even if individuals receive the performance in different places or at different times (for example, a TV broadcast).
As an initial matter, it’s hard to narrow the kinds of activities such a bill could potentially encompass. Practically speaking we wouldn’t expect to see most of these pursued or prevailing; however, uncertainty and the fear of prosecution and defense expenses could well discourage innovation in online services and lawful speech.
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http://maxkeiser.com/2011/06/26/obamas-attacks-on-the-public-domain-intensify/Obama’s attack on the public domain intensifies. The fight for public domain expanding IP rights steps up. We support the Swedish Pirate Party and pirate parties globally.Copyrighted material should be a very, very small subset of the intellectual property universe. Instead, we get the opposite. Copyrighted material is squeezing out and destroying the public domain from which all intellectual property emanates.
Just like GM seeds are killing biodiversity in the agricultural space, so to, draconian copyright laws are killing diversity in the domain of ideas. PirateMyfilm.com originates copyright free intellectual property that bypasses this horrendous encroachment by the Federal government. Of all the offensive invasions; surveillance, the TSA, corrupt bankers, the police state, GM seeds, non-accountability of toxic waste producing corporations by political cronies – the destruction of our birthright to ideas and creativity is by the far the most pernicious and appalling. It is an unforgivable sin committed by the copyright cartel lobby (MPAA, RIAA) with this administration’s blessing. Our response is to squeeze out copyrighted material by financing, producing, distributing and consuming copyright free intellectual property (creativecommons.org) until such time as some balance is restored. We are a long way from achieving intellectual equilibrium in this space.
The copyright issue has been building for many years – and this will be a fight that will go on for many years to come – so anything commented here and now won’t move the needle one way or another. But to those who understand the stakes involved, let this be a notice to you that the fight is intensifying and we’re on the side of groups like the Swedish Pirate Party and pirate parties around the world, as we fight for public domain expanding IP right and a repeal of all copyright extension acts of the past 50 years.
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