Okay, this was sent to me by my lady. If this is taken to where it could be, by logic, sharing a link to ANY website with anyone could be seen as copyright infringement. Seriously. If they can interpret it so that a video link is infringement, then you linking to my website’s article is too. Do that, and the Internet STOPS.
Go read, please.
Friends —
Ever sent someone a link to a copyrighted YouTube video? Of course — everybody has. And now the US Government seems to think that means it can put us in prison.
Bryan McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various websites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and on Friday they _arrested him_ for criminal copyright infringement.
But the government doesn’t even allege he made a copy of anything! Just that his site _linked_ to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who’s sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal.
You can fight back by clicking here:
This is another shocking overreach by the department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a steamship-era department that’s proving once again it doesn’t understand the Internet. We need to push back — and fast — before they try to lock up all Americans.
Just click here to sign Demand Progress’s petition to ICE:
Thanks!
So freaking stupid. This is what our government is coming to.
