– Obama to Fill Prisons with File Sharers Instead of Pot Smokers? (Activist Post, Aug 18, 2013):
The most ridiculous provisions of the defeated SOPA are put back on the table. Obama Administration wants online streaming to be a felony.
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The Washington Post reports:
You probably remember the online outrage over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) copyright enforcement proposal. Last week, the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force released a report on digital copyright policy that endorsed one piece of the controversial proposal: making the streaming of copyrighted works a felony.
As it stands now, streaming a copyrighted work over the Internet is considered a violation of the public performance right. The violation is only punishable as a misdemeanor, rather than the felony charges that accompany the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material.
SOPA attempted to change that in Section 201, aptly titled “Streaming of copyrighted works in violation of criminal law.” Some have suggested that the SOPA version and an earlier stand-alone piece of legislation from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) would have criminalized covers of songs shared on Youtube.
A slightly more colorful explanation of this development is in the video below:
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One of the good things that have come out of the NSA debacle is the fact SOPA is dead…….for the time being. No politician is going to touch it.
Obama may want, but he isn’t going to get. He is losing points with Americans even though they don’t read the Guardian, rt.com, this site or some others. Obama’s latest efforts in destroying Medicare and Social Security have nearly ended his abilities to do much more damage.
We have enough problems, we don’t need to look for them.
Another reason Obama is losing steam.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/white-house-credibility-deficit