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Comment by akersten | Hacker News Reader

"Felony streaming." Consider the absurdity of that concept. Categorizing the re-transmission of someone else's imaginary property in the same bucket as committing murder.

Looks like it's going to the Senate, poised to pass. There's not much else an average person can do than call in and object. I would encourage anyone in a position of power to enforce laws like this to say No. Do not implement systems to enable this. Make it as hard as possible for the copyright mafia to extort ordinary internet users. Civilly disobey. It's a tough fight, but it's one we can't give up - or one day your device will have to run ContentID before you can Ctrl-V.

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>Consider the absurdity of that concept. Categorizing the re-transmission of someone else's imaginary property in the same bucket as committing murder.

Printing funny green pieces of paper is a felony too. I get the rhetorical effect you're going for, but it's silly to pretend that all felonies are as severe as murder.

Although to me "categorizing the re-transmission of someone else's imaginary property in the same bucket as counterfeiting currency" also has a pretty strong rhetorical effect.

They're both pretty similar actually. With money, its just that the government owns the copyright.

If we're really going to conflate counterfeiting currency with streaming then I'll get out the ketchup and my finest silver to stick a fork in the very well-done HN.

Well the magnitude of offense is of course completely different, but counterfeiting bills is just a form of copyright infringement.

Counterfeiting currency on a massive level would devalue the currency, cause hyperinflation, wipe out everybody's savings. Taking away everyone's savings and breaking the economy would probably indirectly cause a large number of suicides.

So i still think its not comparable to that either. Not to say there aren't other felonies that are probably stupid.

The free flow of information via streaming on a massive level would cut into Disney's profits. So it's much worse.

Explain a felony every time you go looking for a job. They played games like this with marijuana, we dumped people in jail or tarnished their public records. Decisions like this are not inconsequential and impact lives once codified.

Don’t play these games over streaming video sites.

One difference is a 4 year old can't accidentally counterfeit currency. However, there is a real chance that a 4 year old could post a picture.

If only prosecutors were blindfolded, administering "justice" evenly and blindly, without regard for political fallout: "It doesn't matter who posted this cat picture, they must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Oh shit, it's a 4 year old, this isn't going to make 'the land of the free' look very good."

Doesn’t justify the legislation, but I believe the streaming has to be intentional, and is directed at companies.

I haven't read the law, but I'm a priori very skeptical of "directed at" reasoning in law. After it's on the books, it will be used to go after whoever the prosecutor wants to go after, subject to their constituents and vested interests with access.

Only a couple years ago they were prosecuting teen couples for child pornography for having nudes of each other.

> Printing funny green pieces of paper is a felony too

Exactly. End the Fed.

Same bucket. Not "as severe as".

Until there is a credible way to push back (strong disincentive to politicians and the copyright cartel in the form of political or financial loss when they attempt the bullshit and fail), they will keep trying their luck at tightening the ratchet and the copyright regime will become more and more absurd. Just defeating the attempts some times is not enough as some attempts at the bullshit are bound to succeed and like a ratchet, this thing becomes tighter and tighter.

It's arguable that this is the deathrattle of the copyright industry. Theater revenue has flatlined since COVID and it's unlikely that they'll ever be resuscitated. Once theaters go, the cinema industry will have a very difficult time trying to convince consumers that movies are worth full theater price when they're being streamed.

> Once theaters go, the cinema industry will have a very difficult time trying to convince consumers that movies are worth full theater price when they're being streamed.

I got a pretty decent home theater setup and still, an actual cinema beats it by far. My biggest issue is sound - in a cinema, you can feel low frequencies... if I would crank up the amp that far at home, I'd get a visit from the cops.

While I agree that it is excessive, "Felony" is a very very broad category, so your comparison is not meaningful.

There are plenty of lesser crimes that are felonies also.

Also remember that they are referring to the producer of the copyright infringing stream, not the consumer.

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