Guess what, if a certain US bill goes through, which it looks like it almost certainly will, the internet will be owned by the entertainment industry. No really. User generated content that contains ANY copyrighted material (in the most broadly interpreted use of that term to date) can have your whole site shitcanned without notice, and you can end up facing jail time, probably no matter where you are.
'What's copyrighted material Old Angry Guy?' I hear you ask. Well it includes posting a video with a copyrighted song or television content playing in the background for example. So bang goes every music and film review site in existence I imagine. It's probably the only thing I've respected Justin frigging Bieber for. He opposes it because he got his career started by uploading Youtube videos of himself singing along to pop songs. BIEBER IN THE BIG HOUSE! Fucking Bieber of all people would go to frigging jail because of this.
Read more and help out.
Nice, the only thing I'd add is that's it not just copyrighted material that can be under threat it is if you have a link on your site to suspected copyrighted material (I don't even think the accuser bears much in the way of burden of proof)
ReplyDeleteOh, not to mention a potential 5 years of jail time for any infringement, even singing a pop song (to quote the video). Would they abuse these powers the government is about to give them? Well their current behaviour with their already overbloated powers has seen them go after middle and low income single users with their full legislative might... so I reckon they'll probably play nice now 0_o
@TickledBlue
ReplyDeleteVery good points. One only has to look at how, say the Patriot Act, has been implemented to see that corrupt and underhanded uses of this new bill are a case of when, not if.
The threat of association with as well is classic fascism. I wish that was hyperbole, but it's not. Prosecuting someone for something an associate (whether friend or family IRL, or a link, subscriber or whatever OL) said or did is one of the hallmarks of fascist/authoritarian law-making.