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Senate Bill S.978


Darros
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Basically, it's saying any copyrighted music in YouTube videos will be illegal. This includes Let's Plays, Covers, and AMVs. 10 infractures in a 180 day period can be punished by 5 years in jail.

This is just nuts. It would ruin YouTube and other multimedia sites (like Dailymotion). I think it's a very bad idea. Discuss.

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After I post that, ESR links me to this.

So it only applies to unreleased media. Still, makes me wonder about things like FE12.

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It's just more of the dying throes of an industry that refuses to adapt to a changing climate.

Oh good at least it is dying. However it may take some time. Also I know people who seem to stand by copyright laws though I don't know why.

(I stand by them too but I don't think I've actually supported the music industry.)

Edited by Loki Laufeyjarson
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Someone asked about FE12. Basically, this would apply to things that are totally unreleased. New Monshou would not qualify since it was released in Japan, though ROM copies would obviously fall under current copyright standards. For that, COICA is your biggest concern (I believe it's S.3084). Furthermore, in Youtube videos, copyrighted music is already *technically* illegal; what happens is Youtube has heuristics of all of the RIAA's music as provided by them, and they can determine whether or not they allow their music to be used. For example, Prince has the right, on Youtube, to take out music of children dancing to Let's Go Crazy if he so chooses. Technically, these things would be covered by Fair Use, but when you're using Google's software on Google's site under Google's terms, "Fair Use" doesn't apply.

In other words, no, uploading something to Youtube will not make you a felon, and this is just reactionary bullshit. There are many, legitimate reasons to hate this bill.

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I doubt this'll pass.

It *WILL* pass. The Democrats like it because it protects industry jobs (Democrats are heavy recipients of RIAA money), and the Republicans will like it because it's pro-business.

The QUESTION is if it will survive legal scrutiny. That, I'm not 100% sure of.

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Jesus Christ Superbus is alive.

Note the lack of a comma.

(not a particular fan/not fan of superbus but he was pretty cool at one point in one argument i remember)

Edited by Loki Laufeyjarson
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Lol they're making a law about youtube? Sorry but it just seems... kinda funny.

Wait, so we can't show concert videos?? ;A;

Edited by Agnaktor
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Did no one really read the bill? All it's doing is editing an already existing law. It's changing this law, to make it so that people can not, legally, stream or make videos about games that haven't been released yet, and make more than $2500 doing such.

It's also making is so that artists can not do fan art, and make more than $2500 doing such.

That's all it's doing. People need to lrn2read and calm down some.

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Did no one really read the bill? All it's doing is editing an already existing law. It's changing this law, to make it so that people can not, legally, stream or make videos about games that haven't been released yet, and make more than $2500 doing such.

It's also making is so that artists can not do fan art, and make more than $2500 doing such.

That's all it's doing. People need to lrn2read and calm down some.

I actually read the bill today, as well as some legal analysis of it. It's much worse than that. The best analysis I can think of is here, but to sum it up:

* This narrows consumer rights with no payoff. And no, "we'll keep jobs to be able to make you more amazing games/movies/music!" is not a payoff. That's profit for publicly owned companies.

* What is actually determining what the worth of a stream is? Let's say, for example, that I decided to live stream my playing of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 at the end of July instead of just playing it and taking screenshots. Nintendo could determine that they would charge me a $50 license to stream Fire Emblem games. That's 50 readers. Above that, and I can be charged with a FELONY? And would this affect, say, a bar that has a pay per view boxing or wrestling event?

* What is determining the jurisdiction? What determines my intent? Am I going to have to go into court and specifically defend myself? If so, I would think that would violate the whole "innocent until proven guilty" aspect of our judicial system.

The stated intent of the law is to take out sites like that Spanish site that has streams of games available for download, as well as sites like Justin.TV, which routinely are taking people down for illegally streaming games, either pay per view events, or games from other countries/other feeds (for example, if I decided I wanted to watch the BBC feed of the Women's World Cup instead of ESPN's). IT's intended to go after the big guys. But the law is so vague, it's hard to see a higher court not striking it down as unconstitutional.

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