posting video game footage soon to be against the law in US?

[DiploDocus]

land of the free... don't comply we use violence against you

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s112-978

http://shoryuken.com/2011/06/29/trolling-the-stream-by-ultradavid/


The United States Senate is in the process of considering bill S.978, a bill “To amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright,” or as you might know it, the Anti-Streaming Bill. There’s been some discussion about what it really means and how it would affect stuff we care about, so I’d like to clear everything up. To be blunt, if passed it would pretty significantly reconfigure American copyright law in ways that could honestly really hurt internet culture in general and our video game communities specifically.

So what does it do? Its stated purpose is to attack the online streaming of copyrighted works, specifically films and live television. It tries to do this by criminalizing some electronically transmitted (read: internet) public performances of copyrighted works.

[DiploDocus]

and if anyone noticed when LA Noire was released that Rockstar games filed copyright on anyone uploading clips of that game that involved storyline cutscenes

pretty crazy but people will probably get used to it like other stupid laws, they slowly roll them out and people comply

[x-factor]

Rockstar and other companies only do that for people that upload videos before street date.
ie. Mostly people that pirate games and upload them early to gain views before the game launches.

I uploaded a few LA Noire complete case walkthrough videos after launch date and they were never taken off of youtube.

It is necessary for the TV and Film industry to have those laws in place. There would be far less Movie and TV series sales and lost
advertising revenue if anybody can simply go on youtube and watch any movie or TV episode they want to see on demand.

[Super strokey]

I dont see the issue with this at all, if you dont have permission to stream someone elses stuff to other people you shouldnt be doing it... perhaps im missing something?

[jz1n]

Oh that's cool, Youtube will now have videos of... nothing.

[Kovaelin]

That's not going to pass. Most people that post footage of LPs, also do commentary, and if they ban that then they're going to be opening a whole other can of worms about rights, etc.

[brucedlx]

I dont see the issue with this at all, if you dont have permission to stream someone elses stuff to other people you shouldnt be doing it... perhaps im missing something?

There is a very large following for video walkthroughs of games (speedruns, "Let's Play _____", replays of street fighter of starcraft) as well as streaming of live tournaments.

However, I think this law is is more targeted towards sites like atdhe that stream live PPV and sports freely accross the internet. Capcom and Blizzard have never gone after anyone who streams their ****, in fact it works in there favor as it increases the hype for their games. I wouldn't worry about this for game videos, the actual copyright holders have nothing to gain by suing streamers and replay uploaders, which leaves the actual authorities, and what do they really gain by going after them? It's not like these are rapists, drug dealers and pornographers. Just harmless kids uploading **** from their homes for entertainment purposes.

I mean, some games even have a feature that allows you to upload to youtube (3rd strike online will have this).