Bill S.978 Will SHUT DOWN Gaming Videos and Streams EVERYWHE

[Qinni]

Bill S.978 will make posting any copy righted material in movies, t.v., and video games illegal to post on the internet. The bill is in the right place with movies and t.v. but it will natively effect video games and stuff like machinima and so on. Also it will hurt sells on video game companies since there will be no way to tell if a game will be good or not. (no game reviews) If the bill passes and you post anything like this, you can be fined for thousands of dollars and even go to jail for 5 years.

This will cripple the video game community greatly and I suggest you share this video with everyone and go to the link in the video description, there you can state your opinion on the bill to the US Congress. (I know some of you are in the UE, sorry)

If this goes threw there will be no more let play's, walkthoughs, speed runs, game reviews, wow machinima, minecraft, wow, etc.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hytigOSjJxc

[Cerele]

no offence...
machinima needs to be taken down. they repost videos that were succesful mentioning a video game, it angers me they've even been around this long.
not all videos are reposts but some of the major ones are. i will miss arby and the chief though. and ibeckman

[Qinni]

no offence...
machinima needs to be taken down. they repost videos that were succesful mentioning a video game, it angers me they've even been around this long.
not all videos are reposts but some of the major ones are. i will miss arby and the chief though. and ibeckman

I agree on your part its just that this will hurt everyone else, basically going back into the dark ages before the internet.

[Kurenio]

This seems retarded.... Just something else for the government to say "We own you hahahaha" Yep... think ima move to canada now.

[Cerele]

no it just means no more videos from average viewers. its not a huge deal you will just now have to read
glad i got the pic for my signature before this happens lol

[Kurenio]

TV and movies fine... but video games? really?

[Cerele]

i have a theory on how this happened.

Obama playing call of duty: SWEET i found a glitch! i need to share it with the world!
He runs off video taping his newly found glitch and posts it on youtube. He then goes to bed hoping he will get many views and thumbs up.

When he awakens the next day he quickly jumps onto his computer to see how the video went. scrolling through the page he sees many thumbs down and the comments are mostly
"L2P dumb a**"
"Wow way to copy a video"
"Ohh my god this guy sucks *****"
"This isnt a glitch idiot its called reloading"
"Comment removed"

Looking at related videos Obama saw a video that was a direct copy of his uploaded by machinima that had 10x the amount of views and had many thumbs up's. The highest rated comments were "Mrprez645 copied your video" and "Video has been copied!!!"

two days later bill s.978 was in office.

Or something like that lol

[erwil]

Uh.. I can't... really quite see this bill going through to be fair. Also, as far as I know, Blizzard is very much on the positive side when it comes to people making machinimas of the game.

[Litlemouse]

What? I'm confused O.o so nobody can have YouTube videos of WoW etc.?

[Lupis]

Stupidest bill ever. Good gods, the people who designed this don't understand the internet. I highly doubt this will go anywhere, because someone is going to realize how idiotic this is.

[Felidire]

Does that apply only to US residents, or to people who upload content to US-based servers? Sounds pretty stupid to me, even if it did pass I can't see many Americans stopping their uploading. If they get tracked down they'd just use a proxy server for their uploads, if everything gets removed because it's on US servers then they'd just start uploading to non-US websites?

If a law like that passed over here, i'd just keep uploading like nothing had changed. *shrugs*

[Lohuran]

Whyyyyy?? Of all the crap our government should be worried about, why is video games and video game content on the list? *facepalm*

*Also, isn't this unconstitutional anyway? It tramples over our right to freedom of speech, doesn't it? >>
** Another edit! This sounds like something that'd get taken to Video Game Voters Network. Is this a new development? Hmm...to G4!

[Ijomi]

This seems retarded.... Just something else for the government to say "We own you hahahaha" Yep... think ima move to canada now.

Canada has copyright laws as well, last I heard.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s978/show

"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."

The rights of a creator to profit off their work...and have a say in how THEIR work is used....is not new. YouTube already "mutes" all those videos that try to use copyrighted music, take down copies of old movies, cartoons, etc. The wording and specifications need clarification, but the concept itself is not new. Creator rights do need to be updated for the internet, because piracy and exploitation is frankly out of hand. Even the poster of the video admits that. To be honest, I'm more disturbed by all the anti-American venom in the comments, right up to saying the U.S. -deserved- 9/11 for this. Because artists apparently only work for the public's benefit.

Blizzard has always been awesome to their fan community. I don't see there being a problem with people getting authorization for their own Leeroys in any case.

[Litlemouse]

Ok then, that's just lame. TV and movies I'd understand but video games? -.-

And is this *just* for videos or is fan art etc a no-no too? I didn't read very carefully

I give this bill effort a 2/10, 2 only because it stirred a bunch of people up.

[Kurenio]

Then I'll go be a hermit on some uncharted island >.> either way I don't want to give the government more control then is needed to protect our freedoms. It's a slippery slope if they can say... "oh you can't stream a competition or you can't upload CoD content" it's only a matter of time before they do it with something else. Quite frankly I won't stand for it.

[Ijomi]

But that's just it.....where is the line drawn, our freedoms, and the freedoms of those who make the content we enjoy? Yes, they may crack down on video game walkthroughs, but what of the game company's right to sell game guides for their own games? It is an extremely slippery slope, and they need to clarify a lot.

I don't understand the furor, to be honest. It's the governmental version of PTR or patch day. Even the poster of that video said it is nowhere near being put into action.

[Lotusii]

I don't see the need for this. I watch streams of people playing games, fan videos, videos of in game bugs and things like that all the time. Companies like WoW and LoL even showcase them on their forums/websites/etc. I can't imagine this actually going through. This whole issue seems so wasteful when there are so many other things going on that should take precedence over a silly thing like this.

[Ijomi]

Currently, if a criminal is selling pirated DVDs or CDs on a street corner, and they’re worth at least $2500, it is a felony. But if that same person is in their basement and felony streaming movies or books, whatever they could do, they could only be charged with a misdemeanor. This legislation fixes that loophole.

[The legislation] does not go after legitimate businesses or innocent people who post a video or post a blog. In other words, the bill is not intended nor does it allow law enforcement to prosecute people who may stream videos and other copyrighted works to their friends without intending to profit from the work of the copyright owner. It also does not allow prosecutors to go after individuals that innocently post links on their blogs to copyrighted protected works.

This site, among other links, seem a lot more informative than the panic over at that Youtube video. It seems more intended to try closing that little loophole, not instigating the end-of-the-world umadbro revolution that's happening in the comments over at Youtube.

[AdamSavage]

There already on the man hunt for the parody singers. They are trying to nail Sharm.

[Aeladrine]

Currently, if a criminal is selling pirated DVDs or CDs on a street corner, and they’re worth at least $2500, it is a felony. But if that same person is in their basement and felony streaming movies or books, whatever they could do, they could only be charged with a misdemeanor. This legislation fixes that loophole.

[The legislation] does not go after legitimate businesses or innocent people who post a video or post a blog. In other words, the bill is not intended nor does it allow law enforcement to prosecute people who may stream videos and other copyrighted works to their friends without intending to profit from the work of the copyright owner. It also does not allow prosecutors to go after individuals that innocently post links on their blogs to copyrighted protected works.

This site, among other links, seem a lot more informative than the panic over at that Youtube video. It seems more intended to try closing that little loophole, not instigating the end-of-the-world umadbro revolution that's happening in the comments over at Youtube.

If they change the bill to reflect the quote you, well, quoted, I'd be fine with it.

But from what I've researched, at the moment you get 10 shots. If you stream something, including if you post a video of you and your friends singing at a bar, ten times in a 180 day period, you can go to jail for five years and be fined.

This is the problem with this bill. It does not specify that only those out to make monentary gain will be imprisoned.

This bill is poorly written and poorly thought out.