US Department of Justice suggests upgrading illegal streaming to a felony charge

The US Department of Justice last week called for Congress to upgrade streaming copyright-infringing content from a misdemeanour to a felony, putting it on par with downloading copyright-infringing material. 

The Hill reports that David Bitkower, the DOJ’s acting deputy assistant attorney general in Criminal Division, said that it doesn’t make sense to differentiate between illegally downloading a copy of the latest “Captain America” movie and illegally streaming it. He also remarked that while misdemeanour charges still carry penalties these are not severe enough to deter large-scale infringers. 

Bitkower conceded that Congress could keep the upgrade to a felony “narrow” and only increase the maximum penalties. 

The debate comes as consumers are shifting en-masse to streaming for the consumption of multimedia content. In the music industry the debate around this shift has mostly involved legal services and perhaps this is a reflection of the wide availability of free ad-supported, legal services allowing consumers to stream their favourite artists without incurring any penalty. 

The concerns of the TV and movie industries are probably a key reason for the proposed upgrade of streaming to a felony charge since the strict windowing of releases and the unavailability of most content from popular streaming services like Netflix for months after release means that there is a healthy market for illegal streaming sites. 

The question is whether the movie industry and the DOJ are prepared to go after infringers in the same way the RIAA went after music fans in the early 2000’s. That didn’t exactly turn out well for them.

(Andrea Leonelli)