You may have seen people saying that this bill would criminalize unauthorized streaming. I reviewed the text of the proposed legislation ( https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf) to see what it says, & I don't want it, but it's prob not meant to take most Twitch streamers to court. Quick thread: https://twitter.com/THR/status/1341106003581030404

In short: it'd be a crime to promote/offer digital transmission services primarily made/provided for the purpose of publicly performing copyrighted works without rights holder authorization, with no other commercially significant purpose/use, for commercial advantage/private gain

I'd guess that this is intended to prevent businesses from running those streaming sites that just host & run ads against free unauthorized content, like live sports streams, new movies, etc. I want copyright reigned in, not expanded, but it's hard for me to be too mad about that

As low (very low) an opinion as I have of copyright/tech jurisprudence/judges, I still wouldn't expect courts to interpret this to kill Twitch, YouTube, etc, which have more going than just rank infringement. They have tons of infringement, but they have major legal purposes too

My concern is with who's on the hook for offering/providing a digital transmission service like this. Is it the website owner? Probably. But can it be a user too? I think the law should be interpreted to say no, but I'd want that to be very clear before I'd be ok with it

Even if Twitch won't face criminal charges, what about you, you minnow in a pond full of predatory 20th century content rights sharks, as you stream games 24/7 without explicit authorization (like we all do)? I'd say that we don't meet this law's requirements. But, idk if I'd win

People are saying, wait, aren't sites that just stream unauthorized content already bustable? Yeah, but for "normal" copyright infringement, rights holders are in charge of enforcing their own rights, meaning they usually have to spend their own money!! to bust infringers

But for criminal infringement, enforcement falls more to the government. I figure a big part of why content lobbyists bribed members of Congress to introduce this legislation in the first place is that they want to make the government pay to protect their rights for them

Also, penalties for "normal" copyright infringement are usually just financial (although they can be super high). But for criminal copyright infringement, you can be looking at years in prison too. So I imagine this is meant as a stronger means of dissuading these sites as well

Anyway obv it's horrible & absurd that stuff like this has been shoehorned into a covid relief bill that won't even give real relief. May the children of the corrupt politicians who contributed this pork instead of just helping people out come to know who their parents truly are