A lot of buzz on the internet around the bills being debated in the House and Senate (with broad, bipartisan support) that would allow the Government to issue take-down notices to websites, turn streaming copyrighted content (even noncommercially) into a 5 year felony, and otherwise creates chaos on the internet among any platform that hosts content.
The current law (DMCA - which is already not a great bill), at least gives websites like YouTube or Facebook the ability to be legally safe so long as they respond to copyright take-down notices in a timely manner. For instance, if someone posts a movie that includes copyrighted content, the copyright holder can send a notice to YouTube, and YouTube can exercise discretion and either take it down, or respond to the request.
Now, if someone posts a movie to YouTube that has copyrighted content, the copyright holder can take the complaint to the domain registrants and demand that YouTube be taken off the internet.
This is worse than simply censorship. This is vigilante censorship -- censorship done outside of the courts, by self-appointed warriors.
If it passes, we go from all being criminals to all being felons.
