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With day 1 digital distribution of films becoming more prevalent, and movie theater chains going out of business, Hollywood and the MPAA are going to do everything they possibly can to kill or cobble illicit streaming. This could include increasing potential criminal penalties for individuals who operate "streaming piracy" services:
Movie Company Boss Urges US Senators to Make Streaming Piracy a Felony
In the United States, criminal copyright infringers can be sentenced to five years in prison. However, this is not the case for streaming piracy, which is seen as a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum jail sentence of one year. Millennium Films boss Jonathan Yunger is callling on senators to change this, so the Department of Justice can effectively shut down and prosecute streaming piracy operations.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property is actively looking for options through which the US can better address online piracy. During a hearing last month, various experts voiced their opinions. They specifically addressed measures taken by other countries and whether these could work in the US, or not. Pirate site blocking and upload filtering emerged as the main topics during this hearing. While pros and cons were discussed, movie industry insiders including Millennium Media co-president Jonathan Yunger framed these measures as attainable and effective.
After the hearing, senators asked various follow-up questions on paper. Last week we reported how former MEP Julia Reda answered these by stressing the importance of affordable legal options. Yunger, however, takes another approach.
In his answers, which were published before the weekend, he reiterates the power of website blocking. In addition, Yunger also brings a second, previously unmentioned issue to the forefront: criminal penalties for streaming piracy. "The second thing that we could easily do in the United States is close the legal loophole that currently allows streaming – which accounts for the vast majority of piracy today – to be treated as a misdemeanor rather than a felony," Yunger writes.
See also: Movie & TV Giants Sue 'Pirate' Nitro IPTV For 'Massive' Copyright Infringement
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:03PM (5 children)
Can't say I get too worked about about prosecution.
A lot of people who frequent this site seem to believe watching movies without paying for them is a human right. I say it just shows how utterly controlled their minds are by Hollywood that they go through all the bother and illegality to get their fix.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:34PM (3 children)
It's my right to freely watch movies 150 years before they enter the public domain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:45PM (2 children)
The biggest financial hit to Hollywood is from people pirating brand new movies, sometimes the day of release. Movies make the vast majority of their money during this important period. The vast majority of people who pirate don't respect ANY duration of copyright, so you are throwing out a red herring with that public domain argument. Would you promise not to pirate content that is less than 50 years old? I doubt you would even care about the movie then. Most people would find the content "dated."
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday April 08 2020, @11:37PM
In the second place, I wouldn't make any such promise for such an unreasonable length of time. If copyright was a more reasonable time, such as half the time patents stay in force in any given jurisdiction, I probably would.
In the first place, I don't pillage ships at sea so I don't pirate; I also don't copy/download/buy hollywood films because doing so just feeds the trolls.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @07:16PM
all of these establishment video channels are propagandists and need to be bankrupted anyways.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MostCynical on Tuesday April 07 2020, @10:37PM
Do you mean people are controlled becasue they want the content at all?
If so, so what?
People will pay even if content is crap, but make it hard enough and people will find an alternative.
As for your contention about 'bother and illegality'.. there is hardly any "bother", and one could argue that any 'illegality' is on the distributors, making alot of content difficult or impossible to access legally (by refusing to make it available to watch or listen).
watch legally: download a program, sign in, activate account, hand over credit card details, set up profile, find preferred content (if available), watch
watch by download: download a program, find content, download (VPN recommended)
watch by streaming: Find content, press play (VPN recommended)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex