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# Klobuchar


Government Getting Close to Arresting YOU for Streaming Ten YouTube Videos

The 10 Strikes legislation passed out of the Senate Judiciary committee last Thursday, and is now advancing quietly through the Senate. More than 30,000 Demand Progress members have emailed their lawmakers to urge them to oppose the bill.
<div>Sen. Amy Klobuchar's "10 Strikes" legislation would make streaming of unlicensed copyrighted content a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. As written, the bill would subject internet users who stream content 10 times or more to criminal charges. Potential uses that would be criminalized under Klobuchar's bill are:
– Youtube Karaoke
– Homemade web videos with music
– Videos of public performances
– Videos of parties that include background music
David Segal, Demand Progress Campaign Director stated, "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 of or concern for how many ordinary Americans use — and should be free to use — the Internet"
 

In 1979, video killed the radio star... while in 2011, Congress is killing the Youtube star

This week, senators will be voting on a "Ten Strikes" bill to make it a felony to stream copyrighted content — like music in the background of a Youtube video — more than ten times.

Will you email your lawmakers and urge them to vote no? Just click here.  

As the writers at TechDirt point out, under this bill you could go to jail for posting video of your friends singing karaoke:

“The entertainment industry is freaking out about sites that embed and stream infringing content, and want law enforcement to put people in jail over it, rather than filing civil lawsuits…. We already pointed to one possibility: that people embedding YouTube videos could face five years in jail. Now, others are pointing out that it could also put kids who lip sync to popular songs, and post the resulting videos on YouTube, in jail as well.”

Senator Klobuchar, who first introduced this bill, claims that “individuals or families streaming movies at home,” will not be targeted — only “criminals that are intentionally streaming thousands of dollars in stolen digital content and profiting from it.” Yet, how can Congress draw such a line, when oftentimes, a personal video (perhaps accompanied by those ubiquitous overlay advertisements) innocently goes viral and gets millions of hits?

Will you email your lawmakers and tell them to vote against the Ten Strikes Bill? Just click here.