Bill S.978 or the
Commercial Felony Streaming Act is a
bill that is pending introduction to the
United States Senate floor. It was proposed by
Amy Klobuchar,
Chris Coons, and
John Cornyn on May 12, 2011. It is an amendment to
US Code Title 18 Section 2319, that would make unauthorized
streaming of
copyrighted material for the purpose of "commercial advantage or personal financial gain", a
felony (under current law, unauthorized streaming is only a
misdemeanor). The penalty could include up to five years of prison-time. It defines illegal streaming as streaming ten or more times in a 180 day period. Furthermore, the value of the illegally streamed material would have to be greater than $2,500, or the licensing fees would have to be over $5,000.
Several articles have been published, expressing concern as to whether the bill would affect those who stream or post videos of copyrighted content (videogames, TV shows, music) on public sites such as
YouTube. The bill does not directly address this aspect. Although it was unknown whether the law would be enforced as such, there was an outcry with several negative reactions against the bill on YouTube, and other websites during July 2011.
Both Klobuchar and Coons have stated that the bill is not intended to affect the aforementioned aspects, instead it would only target websites or people who profit from illegally streaming copyrighted material.