Score one for the MPAA.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted to make illegal video streaming a felony. The proposed law still has to go through to the full Senate for voting before you start having to be more careful about where you’re clicking.
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The move, not surprisingly, is largely backed by the guys who run Hollywood: It’s mainly supported by the Screen Actors Guild, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Independent Film & Television Alliance and many other people in the entertainment business.
National Association of Theatre Owners President John Fithian points out: “To the technicians, designers, construction workers, and artists who support their families through their work in entertainment, there’s no difference between illegal downloading and illegal streaming – it’s all theft that hurts their work, their wages and their benefits.”
The upgrade of the offense to a felony is fairly serious, considering the fact that illegally streaming 10 videos over a six-month period is now enough to land you in jail for five years. Yowza.
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It won’t become law until it passes through the Senate and Obama, but how about just saving yourself the hassle and getting a Netflix account like the rest of America already?