Streaming is Now a Felony
Sunday, Congress passed the newest stimulus package, and I’ll admit, my understanding of politics isn’t much more than a bill on capitol hill and the research I do about two weeks before I vote. I do know that with every “package” there are things you don’t want… unless it’s bubble wrap.
Fast forward to Tuesday morning…. I wake to check my social media accounts (Let me give you a glimpse into my social media feed. It’s food, school broadcast programs, “professional” streaming groups, and video production companies. ) and the headlines are flying everywhere: “Illegal Streaming Could Become a Felony Under New COVID-19 Stimulus Bill,” “Tillis Releases Text of Bipartisan Legislation to Fight Illegal Streaming by Criminal Organizations,” “US Congress passes the COVID-19 stimulus bill that would make illegal streaming a felony.”
I immediately did the same thing you did when you read the headlines: “Great! What do I have to be careful of in order to stay out of trouble?” The answer is simple. Don’t set up a streaming service that allows, encourages, or enables people to stream other’s copyrighted work. That’s it. It has nothing to do with what we normally do.
Because I am the nerdiest of nerds, I read the amendment. Here’s the TL;DR version:
The title of the bill is “Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020.” The prohibited act is the “willful, and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, order or provide to the public a digital service that…. is designed or provided for the purpose of publicly performing works protected (by copyright) by means of digital transmission without the authority of the copyright owner or law….. Has no commercially significant purpose or use other than to publicly perform the protected works.”
The above means that you have taken someone else’s work and streamed via a service that you created for financial gain and it has no purpose other than that gain. The biggest thing that most of those who are posting aren’t saying is that this has been illegal forever. The amendment changes the level of punishment from a misdemeanor to a felony. It is known as the streaming loophole. The original law says it is a felony to duplicate and distribute the works. Streaming isn’t technically duplicating the work and technically there is no true distribution unless you can download the file. Illegally streaming was a misdemeanor and is now a felony. Again, breathe easy. It’s not about us.
This new amendment does not say, “You can’t stream because the 16-year old that made the playlist for the basketball games chose copyrighted music.” That is a whole different situation altogether.
The problem with this new amendment is the media and websites. The verbiage used to describe the change tried to get readers to click on the link and go to the website and be counted as a “unique visitor” so they can sell ads at a higher rate.
Prior to my education career, I worked in marketing and online content and know that game all too well. I gave orders to my street teams to “take a picture of everything and everyone and let them know it will be on the website tonight.” I played the game for years. I knew that people would see the headline “You won’t believe what happened at “insert bar/concert/car dealership” and click whether they were there or not. The same is happening here. ”I saw that illegal streaming is now a felony” will lead to a ton of conversations and clicks, only for people to be confused by a Senate bill that is slammed into a larger document.
I guess there are two messages here:
1. Don’t sweat this new penalty for those who are doing something illegal that should never enter our realm.
2. If the headline gets you to click on the link, read everything about the story. Don’t just take the word of the person who wrote the story in order to get you to click. They may just be a teacher on winter break trying to stay quiet while the rest of his family sleeps. (I wonder how many people just read the headline and moved on and are now using this article to leverage that they shouldn’t stream school events.)
Have a great holiday season. Take some time off. Take care of yourself. You deserve a break.
Meet the Author, Tom White
Tom White is the digital media instructor at Morgan County High School in Madison, GA. Currently teaching TV production and animation pathways, Tom's programs have received state and national honors including the 2016 NFHS Network School Broadcast Program Of The Year.
Prior to teaching, Tom was a marketing, promotions, and online content director for a major radio corporation in Atlanta. Tom studied exercise science at High Point University prior to his radio career. Despite his winding career path, his mother still thinks he is special.