S.978 and JTV

[CVagts]

http://shoryuken.com/2011/06/29/trol...by-ultradavid/

This is an article about S.978, a bill in line to be heard by the Senate and House that would affectively put the kibosh on streams-for-profit. I was wondering if this was brought to JTV's attention and what they planned to do about it (in protest of it, I'm assuming).

[Liniert]

Would be terrible if it does go through, would mean an end to the twitchtv component.

[linuxcooldude]

Originally Posted by Liniert

Would be terrible if it does go through, would mean an end to the twitchtv component.

I would worry more about TV & Movies. That would be much more effected.

[dylanlive]

We don't like the bill.

If you don't like it, contact your local representative about it.

[raidsoft]

I've been wondering if there's something we can do about it from outside the US, obviously the law doesn't apply in the same way to us however it will still impact us because pages based in the US (such as jtv) will probably have to enforce this meaning we will lose out as well...

Can't exactly go and contact my local representative when we're not from the US but still want to help in any way possible to make sure this doesn't go through because it would be a disaster for the gaming community if it went through and got enforced (how the hell they would do that is another story)

[Valon22]

I,hope this Bill doesn't go through.But,knowing the us congress once they introduce a bill they add another Bill and gets to become to much so they turn it down completely.

[Chilly8]

Originally Posted by dylanlive

We don't like the bill.

If you don't like it, contact your local representative about it.

I just found this thread, and there is an even worse version as part of the Stop Online Piracy Act. While S978 requires that some kind of commercial or financial gain be made, there is no such requirement in the House version, as part of SOPA.

[Chilly8]

One other thing about S978. I think the "6 months" part of of could also apply to transmissions made before the law takes effect, so anyone streaming movies or sports might want to stop now, before the law is passed.

When S978 was introduced, I shut down my streams, becuase it is unclear whether or not the law would apply to streams made before the law takes effect. Since my ISP only keeps logs for two weeks, they won't be able to get anything on me, if they do decide to make the law apply to streaming done before the law is signed. This is why anyone streamnig movies, or any other copyrighted content would be well advised to stop doing it.

I used to stream movies here, and some sports, and was never banned by JTV. Of course, I only streamed for a few hours a day, which is likely why I never caught anyone's attention when I did do it.

[Chilly8]

Originally Posted by raidsoft

I've been wondering if there's something we can do about it from outside the US, obviously the law doesn't apply in the same way to us

I am afraid that they now have the legal precedent to make the law apply outside the country, even if what you are doing is legal in your country.

Thailand sentenced someone a few days ago for violating their lese majeste laws, despite the fact that the blog postings were done from a US server and from US soil.

While "slandering" the Thai Monarch, and streaming copyrighted material are two different things, what the Thai Court did does open a legal precedent for any country to make their Internet laws apply anywhere around the world.

This, in my analysis, does give US prosecutors legal precedent to come after people outside the USA that violate the Commercial Felony Streaming Act, once enacted. The Thai court has set a dangerous international legal precedent, which couold make the Commercial Felony Streaming Act apply worldwide.