Only days after the Supreme Court struck down the California case involving the idea of violent games needing censorship or being seen as free speech, the US Senate is currently debating and could potentially pass a new bill that will make video game streaming illegal.
The bill focuses more on people streaming game footage than actually streaming or uploading files to pirate a game and its vagueness treats video game streaming the same as streaming a movie that is shown in theaters.
Also considered illegal would be uploading your own playthroughs and walkthroughs for a game similar to a Lets Play or streaming playing games for charity.
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The US Senate has put forth a new bill ( S. 978 ), which if passed could potentially label people who stream video game content (or other copy righted material) onto Youtube or other sites like Blip or Justin.tv as criminals.
Under the "Anti-Streaming" bill, those who are caught streaming copyrighted material (films, music, games etc) in a "performance" that becomes popular and makes over $2,500 can either face some rather hefty fines or even up to five years in prison!
What constitutes as a "performance?" Well, Let's Plays and Live Streams would likely fall into that category. I say likely because the wording of the bill is incredibly vague and could probably mean just about anything, which is why many in the video reviews community are scared that their content could also potentially lead to criminal charges.
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The move is part of a larger push to make streaming of copyrighted material illegal with earlier in the year the FBI going after and shutting down numerous tv and movie streaming websites.
http://screwattack.com/blogs/ScrewAt...you-a-criminal
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Quick News Round-Up:
1) Ubisoft will be pulling TMNT: Turtles in Time Remake completely from PSN and at a later date from XBLA after the company revealed their license for the PSN version of the game ends after June 30 with the XBLA version expiring at a later unannounced date. To squeeze any last chance sales, Ubisoft has the game 50% off on the XBLA Marketplace.
2) Capcom announces Dead Rising 2: Off the Record now has a release date of October 11 in the US/Canada and October 14 for Europe. The game is still set for a $40 price tag.
3) Nintendo of America kills off any hopes of Xenoblade, Last Story, and Pandroa's Tower coming to the US after refusing to publish the game in America. The news comes days after Operation Rainfall began its drive of convincing NoA to bring the Japan-only game to the US by the use of petitions and requests.