There's a disturbing provision buried in the stimulus bill that could upend the way we use the inter

[turbinetree]

December 21, 2020
Common Dreams

Lawmakers in Congress are under fire from digital rights campaigners for embedding three controversial changes to online copyright and trademark laws into the must-pass $2.3 trillion legislative package—which includes a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill and a $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill—that could receive floor votes in the House and Senate as early as Monday evening.

The punitive provisions crammed into the enormous bill (pdf), warned Evan Greer of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, "threaten ordinary Internet users with up to $30,000 in fines for engaging in everyday activity such as downloading an image and re-uploading it... [or] sharing memes."

While the citizenry had almost no time to process the actual contents of the 5,593 page legislative text, Greer said Monday afternoon that the CASE Act, Felony Streaming Act, and Trademark Modernization Act "are in fact included in the must-pass omnibus spending bill."

https://www.rawstory.com/stimulus-internet/

[Doreen]

1. Okay, does this mean when I go to channels with free wallpapers

and I download one and then send it to a friend I will get fined 30,000?

[turbinetree]

3. It would depend if its copyrighted

but I would think yes

[Doreen]

6. One would think when you find channels that say free download

and nothing about not being allowed to share it that that would be safe and the stuff to be free of copyright.

[msongs]

2. the penalties are for using somebody elses stuff to make $$ for YOURSELF without sharing the $$

with the original creators is what I have read around the music websites. If you wanna use beyonce music but not share with beyonce she might object. better to contact her and ask permission as you should

[turbinetree]

4. Thank you................

[Hoyt]

5. Sounds reasonable to me. Wish people would look a little deeper

before posting such stuff. Or, at least make sure it’s not so misleading.

Glad we have fact checkers around.