Minneapolis, MN – Last Friday Demand Progress spoke out against the “10 Strikes” bill (S. 978) championed by Senator Amy Klobuchar. We called on the Senate to decelerate their efforts to pass this unfortunately written anti-piracy legislation. The 10 Strikes bill makes the streaming of unlicensed material a felony with a prison sentence of up to 5 years. In its current form only 10 streams of the content would be necessary to entail the maximum penalty.
We, as well as others, have identified some of potential abuses of this legislation:
-Youtube Karaoke
-Home videos with copyrighted music
-Videos with incidental copyrighted music (such as parties)
The bill made it out of the Judiciary Committee last Thursday and its worming its way through the Senate now. David Segal, Demand Progress’s Campaign Director said of the bill “Senator Klobuchar’s 10 strikes bill has the potential for innumerable unintended consequences that would stifle innovation and personal expression on the internet. The special interests pushing this legislation seem to have little understanding or concern for how many ordinary Americans use – and should be free to use – the Internet.”
More than 30,000 Demand Progress members have already emailed their representatives urging them to oppose this bill. Check out our campaign page to get the message to your Congressperson too!
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