The Commercial Felony Streaming Act () was a

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that was introduced to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

on May 12, 2011. It was proposed by

Amy Klobuchar Amy Jean Klobuchar ( ; born May 25, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minn ...

Chris Coons Christopher Andrew Coons (born September 9, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Delaware since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Coons served as the county executive of New Castle C ...

, and

John Cornyn John Cornyn III ( ; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Senate majority whip for ...

. It would have been an amendment t
US Code Title 18 Section 2319
that would make unauthorized

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

copyrighted A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

material for the purpose of "commercial advantage or personal financial gain", a

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that res ...

(under US copyright law at the time, unauthorized streaming was only a

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...

). The penalty could include up to five years of prison-time. The bill defined 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 were published, expressing concern as to whether the bill would have affected those who stream or post videos of copyrighted content (''e.g.'' video games, TV shows, music) on public sites such as

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. The bill did not directly address this aspect. Although the bill would never become law, there was an outcry with several negative reactions against it on YouTube and other websites during the summer of 2011. Singer

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

was notably among the list of creators in opposition to the bill, and he stated that

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

Amy Klobuchar, the bill's sponsor, "needs to be locked up, put away in cuffs". Both Klobuchar and Coons stated that the bill was not intended to affect the aforementioned aspects, instead it would only target websites or people who profit from illegally streaming copyrighted material.

Status

The bill was considered in committee and introduced to the full chamber during the 2011 congressional session. However, it never received a vote on the Senate floor, and its content was consolidated months later into the

Stop Online Piracy Act The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a controversial proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on O ...

which was ultimately never passed.. In 2020, another bill with similar characteristics, the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, which was specifically tailored to only target willful copyright infringement, was passed and signed into law by President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

References

External links

The text of the bill

Official version
as received by the Senate United States proposed federal intellectual property legislation United States proposed federal criminal legislation Proposed legislation of the 112th United States Congress {{US-fed-statute-stub

Status

See also

References

External links