To follow up on our previous post about the Ten Strikes Bill (S. 978), we are happy to report that over 150,000 Americans have spoken out against this legislation.  

Hundreds of videos in opposition to S.978 have emerged on YouTube in the days since Demand Progress first issued an alert about the bill. Demand Progress has edited many of the videos into a single video which explains S.978 and its likely ramifications. You can watch the video here:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IevBHt6IKX8&feature=player_embedded  

The “Ten Strikes” bill, the legislation would make it a felony to stream unlicensed content 10 times over the course of 180 days. Violators would serve up to five years in prison.

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.