Embedding YouTube Videos May Soon Be a Felony
Techdirt reports that Senate bill 978 a bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright, and for other purposes may be used to prosecute people for embedding YouTube videos. If a website embeds a YouTube video that is determined to have infringed on copyright and more than 10 people view it on that website during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works, the owner or others associated with the website could face up to five years in prison. The bill was proposed by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D, Minnesota) , John Cornyn (R, Texas) and Christopher Coons (D, Delaware).
If enacted, this law will go one step further and turn people who embed a copyrighted video into criminals. It will also set the stage to criminalize linking to copyrighted information like corporate media news sources and shut down the alternative media. It will also make people think twice about putting up all kinds of videos, from news reports to clips from documentaries and other educational material.
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