« The Anti-Streaming Legal Debacle »

There's been a lot of concern over the anti-streaming law currently being mulled over by the United States Senate. Laywer and gamer UltraDavid has a must-read analysis over at Shoryuken that mentions "if you engage in 'public performances by electronic means' [streaming, for example] 10 or more times over a 180 day period... you can potentially get fined and put in jail for five years." By this logic, Spooky would be America's Most Wanted. Is the situation actually so dire?

Perhaps not. The basic idea is to protect movie studios from having pirated films broadcast online without permission. The intent of the law is to protect copyright holders, and those copyright holders would, most likely, have to initiate legal action. Games being streamed or matches posted to YouTube could violate the law, but it is unlikely that the government would prosecute without first determining if the copyright holder approves of the rebroadcast. That's the belief of Capcom's Christian Svensson, who stated on the Ask Capcom boards that Capcom intends to support YouTube uploaders and streamers "whose efforts and intentions have historically been helpful."

So the law, if passed, does have the potential to criminalize streaming and YouTube uploading. Whether or not people are actually prosecuted for such actions is another story; however, just the threat of jail time could create a chilling effect on streaming. While we should all hope that the bill gets rejected, only time will tell whether streaming will be crushed under its heel or if we'll continue with business as usual.

You can fight the power by going to Demand Progress — thanks to SRK for the link — to voice your disapproval to Congress.