US Senator wants Twitch streamers to face jail time for DMCA strikes Thom Tillis Campaign Press Pool \/ TwitchTwitch streamers may face jail time when they\u2019re hit with multiple DMCA strikes on the Amazon-owned streaming platform, if a proposal from Senator Thom Tillis is successfully squeezed into congress\u2019 eleventh-hour omnibus bill. Congress often finds itself in situations where they must hustle through massive \u2018omnibus bills\u2019 in an effort to prevent a government shutdown. Senators use these \u201cmust-pass bills\u201d to slip their controversial deals in, knowing they\u2019ll have to be greenlit. This time around, Senator Tillis is using the chance to take aim at copyrighted material being broadcast on Twitch, and shared in YouTube and Instagram videos. The North Carolina representative believes law enforcement should be given \u201ceffective tools\u201d to combat \u201cunlawful copyright use.\u201d Tillis\u2019 felony streaming proposal, available to read online, recommends any streamer or creator who shares a song, album, or unauthorized video clip in a commercial setting should face a felony offense, with possible prison sentence. The measure\u2019s main aims are similar to the SOPA\/PIPA bills which were first tabled in 2012, as well as the controversial CASE Act, which was passed in Oct. 2019. Controversial bill already facing opposition Since Tillis unveiled the proposal, many in the technology industry have come out against it. According to Protocol, as many as 18 organizations \u2014 including tech trade groups and advocacy organizations \u2014 have written to Congress begging them to decline the omnibus provision. The letter, helmed by the Internet Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the American Library Association, detailed \u201cmajor concerns\u201d around the bill having a \u201cnegative impact on creators, internet users,\u201d and more. Katharine Trendacosta, associate director of policy and activism with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also warned the bill would be a \u201cchill on expression\u201d if it was passed. This could \u201cruin the lives of regular people\u2026 [and] the chance of a felony would impact both expression and innovation,\u201d she continued. \u201cPeople who are engage in things we do online: sharing memes, videos, and downloading images. We already see it\u2019s hard enough in just civil copyright and the DMCA for people to feel comfortable asserting their rights.\u201d What does this mean for Twitch streamers? Well, for now, nothing should change. Twitch streamers will still have to avoid DMCA strikes, but it\u2019s still going to be a \u2018slap on the wrist,\u2019 rather than a jail cell. Anyone sharing content on Twitch, YouTube, or Instagram should keep one eye on the bill, however. The situation is expected to be resolved soon, and if it falls against content creators it could change the DMCA saga all over again. Judgement day for Tillis\u2019 proposal \u2014 which includes the CASE Act and Trademark Modernization Act \u2014 is expected to be Dec. 11; congress has confirmed the bill must be passed before government\u2019s 2020 shutdown on that date. Amazon, which owns Twitch, has yet to publicly comment on the proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Senator wants Twitch streamers to face jail time for DMCA strikes Thom Tillis Campaign Press Pool \/ TwitchTwitch streamers may face jail time when they\u2019re hit with multiple DMCA strikes on the Amazon-owned streaming platform, if a proposal from Senator Thom Tillis is successfully squeezed into congress\u2019 eleventh-hour omnibus bill. Congress often finds itself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}