On Thursday, the proposed bill, formally known as S. 978 in the United States Senate, known across the internet as the "Ten Strikes bill," was reviewed in the Committee on the Judiciary and has now been moved forward to be considered by the Senate as a whole.
The proposed bill, and the existing legal code that is proposes to change, are very detailed laws defining copyright violation. Intellectual property is the legal name for musical, literary, and artistic works such as music and videos. The "Ten Strikes bill " changes a few lines in existing laws to define criminal acts of copyright violation. It also defines criminal penalties for copyright violation.
The term "Ten Strikes" comes from the provisions of the law which call for strict penalties of being "imprisoned not more than 5 years" for "10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works."
Generally widely supported
S. 978 is widely supported, and is much less controversial than other proposed technology laws in the news, such as the "Do Not Track" bill and the Protect IP Act. Numerous media outlets and publishing companies are supporting the bill, with no mainstream opposition reported by MAPLight.org.
If you search on the "Ten Strikes bill" you will find numerous blogs asking you to write your congressman to oppose this bill. The theme of these blogs is that posting videos to You Tube will be a felony, and that the proposed law will make criminals out of YouTube users. It is currently against the law, as it has been for many years under various laws, to republish or distribute artistic works such as music and videos that are not your own creation.
For the internet user that only uses sites like YouTube to upload material that they have personally created, they will not be effected by the changes in the law.
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