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Using YouTube to share a song might be considered as a crime in the near future. As informed by the reliable source, Department of Commerce of the United States requested Congress to enhance the fines for streaming the work that is copyrighted. It is significant that the act revived a provision from the failed STOP Online Privacy Act that is popularly known as SOPA.
Sources informed that in early 2012, SOPA was stopped from passing because of opposition from several entities that include Wikipedia, Google, and the American Civil Liberties Union. However, part of the bill could revive soon. According to the new report of the Commerce Department, the office’s Internet Policy Task Force requested Congress to reassess a particular section of SOPA that stated to penalize people if they are found guilty in uploading select substance to streaming services.
The latest report of task force revealed that, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy and Copyright Policy also pressurized Congress to consider misdemeanor convictions for individuals alleged for streaming copyrighted music, songs, and movies. Critics are of the opinion that such legislation would prohibit the practice of uploading home-produced content to several websites of the internet.
It is noteworthy that in the recent times streaming has become one of the most remarkable means for the consumers to enjoy both audio and video content online. It is significant that under the existing law, streaming an authorized movie or song is only an offense, which is even not enforced regularly. It is expected that if the bill is approved, it would widen the chance of felony charges on streaming sites.
In a report, task force reveals that they would force Congress to enact legislation that enlisted same range of penalties for criminal streaming of the works that are copyrighted to the people like the one exists for criminal reproduction and distribution. In addition to this, they opined to enlist the legislation in the prior list.
According to the reliable information, several licensed online streaming services have launched in recent years. Moreover, different cable television service providers also offer widespread on-demand catalogues to their clients. In addition to these, several other services have also launched, which usually offer services without licenses utilizing technology that is used to transmit individual streams from individually made copies instead of distributing the content to the people from a single source copy. These services create challenge to the traditional dividing lines between private and public performance.
The report also reveals that the copyright office as well as the administration has appealed to Congress to modify the Copyright Act in order to ensure the fact that illegitimate streaming to the community can be castigated as a felony in the similar manner as other types of criminal violation. The relevant authorities believed that a strict and proper law utmost necessary, in order to stop the unsystematic and illicit uploading.
Rep. L Smith (R-Texas) stated that critics have informed him their views about the proposed legislation to tackle the dilemma of online piracy. He added that it is apparent from their views that a new approach is required to identify the foreign thieves who steal and put up products and inventions of America for sale.