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Senate moves bill with up to $15,000 fines for sharing memes online
theamericanmirror.com ^ | July 26, 2019 | VICTOR SKINNER

Posted on 07/28/2019 2:18:26 PM PDT by ransomnote

A bi-partisan bill working its way through Congress could drastically change how copyright claims are processed, and would create a system to impose up to $30,000 in fines on anyone who shares protected material online.

In other words, the Congress wants to make it easier to sue people who send a meme or post images that they didn’t create themselves, essentially a giveaway to lawyers who sue unsuspecting suckers for a living.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved the “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019,” which “creates a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office that will provide copyright owners with an alternative to the expensive process of bringing copyright claims, including infringement and misrepresentation …. in federal court,” according to the Copyright Alliance.

“This new board, called the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), would allow recovery in each case of up to $30,000 in damages total, with a cap of $15,000 in statutory damages per work infringed,” according to the alliance, an advocacy group for the copyright industry.

Critics contend the CCB created would essentially provide a way for copyright trolls to target individuals or small businesses to secure five-figure default judgements for innocent mistakes. Put another way, someone who shares memes they didn’t make could be on the hook for $30,000 in fines from folks who make a living from copyright lawsuits.

A petition on ActionNetwork.org opposing the CASE Act explains:

Have you ever shared a meme that you didn’t make? Or downloaded a photo you saw on social media? If Congress has its way you could soon get slapped with a $15,000 fine by copyright trolls – with no chance of appeal – just for doing normal stuff on the internet.

These trolls buy up copyrights with the sole intent of sending out mass threats and lawsuits to harvest settlements. Now, a dangerous new bill called the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act is sailing through Congress to make it easier for everyone from trolls to Hollywood producers to sue you. …

In recent years, federal courts have made it easier for regular people to defend themselves from frivolous lawsuits by trolls. But the CASE Act would create a separate, industry-friendly system for copyright claims to $30,000, with no option of appeal.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: caseact; ccb; copyright; copyrightclaimsboard; copyrighttrolls; internet; meme; memes; senatejudiciary; smellofbsinthemorn
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To: ransomnote

btt


21 posted on 07/28/2019 3:00:20 PM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Voting for it, even if it doesn't pass, will be an impeachable offense, y'know, under the Nadler standards. Thanks ransomnote.

22 posted on 07/28/2019 3:02:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: ransomnote

Is there going to be a sunset exception in this bill. How would you eliminate every image and meme you used in the past?


23 posted on 07/28/2019 3:04:01 PM PDT by jonrick46 (Cultural Marxism is the cult of the Left waiting for the Mothership.)
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To: ransomnote

What country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.


24 posted on 07/28/2019 3:17:50 PM PDT by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
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To: ransomnote

Btt


25 posted on 07/28/2019 3:20:43 PM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: ransomnote

What about fair use? Hot linking? We may be out of business.


26 posted on 07/28/2019 3:29:05 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: ransomnote

Btt


27 posted on 07/28/2019 3:31:08 PM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: ransomnote

Shades of the EU’s Articles 15 and 17 (formerly 11 and 13).


28 posted on 07/28/2019 3:36:08 PM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds)
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To: mewzilla

The United States Senate has become our very own House of Lords.


29 posted on 07/28/2019 3:37:32 PM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds)
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To: ransomnote

The only way around it is for meme makers to use only stick figures and to have a creative commons symbol on the meme...


30 posted on 07/28/2019 3:40:23 PM PDT by abigkahuna (How can you be at two places at once when you are nowhere at all?)
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To: ransomnote

I can see how this can be used to suppress memes, which is where most comments are directed. But, isn’t the intent of this to shut down peer to peer file traffic transfers in general? Movies, software, books, TV shows, etc?


31 posted on 07/28/2019 3:46:40 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: ransomnote
Sounds like the need for a new paid Internet service - "Meme Republic".

[ INSERT PIC OF WRESTLER RANDY SAVAGE SAYING "OH YEAH!" ]

32 posted on 07/28/2019 3:47:10 PM PDT by The Duke (President Trump = America's Last, Best Chance)
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To: Major Matt Mason

Can there be any doubt the United States Senate is the bottom of the beltway sewer?


33 posted on 07/28/2019 3:48:47 PM PDT by lodi90
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To: ransomnote
A bi-partisan bill working its way through Congress...

What was it that that old comedian George Carlin said about "b-partisan"?

34 posted on 07/28/2019 3:55:33 PM PDT by Flick Lives (MSM, the Enemy of the People since 1898)
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To: ransomnote

Somehow this stinks of New York City.


35 posted on 07/28/2019 4:05:09 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: ransomnote; bitt; Liz; bagster

Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019


36 posted on 07/28/2019 4:21:30 PM PDT by ptsal
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To: ransomnote
Sounds right for a backwards Swamp constantly at war with We The People.
37 posted on 07/28/2019 4:22:53 PM PDT by Vision (Obama corrupted, sought to weaken and fundamentally change America; he didn't plan on being stopped.)
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To: ransomnote
Politicians hate memes that nail their bad behavior. This is a blatant attack on free speech.
38 posted on 07/28/2019 4:25:48 PM PDT by Nateman (If the left is not screaming, you are doing it wrong.)
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To: ransomnote
Why not permit the evolution of an ASCAP or BMI for memes?

Outfits that broadcast songwriters' tunes (i.e., restaurants, live venues, radio stations, streaming services) pay a fee to ASCAP and/or BMI. They take those monies and redistribute them to the owners of that property on the basis of playlists and other methods of documenting how often their songs are being played.

The ASCAP-equvalent for memes could collect a fee from ISPs or hosting services or whatever (which would be passed on to the users) and then, based on an accounting of how often, say, Grumpy Cat memes are posted on your website, the Estate of Grumpy Cat would receive a payment.

It isn't perfect. But the alternative, i.e., ignoring property rights, is something I'd expect from the DNC. Paying for the use of property is the classically liberal way of dealing with the problem.

39 posted on 07/28/2019 4:41:38 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: LeoTDB69
Wouldn’t this conflict in many cases with Fair Use?

Fair use is defined by 17 U.S.C. § 107, and this would presumably modify that section of the U.S.C.

40 posted on 07/28/2019 4:46:51 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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