America’s top copyright cop wants to make it a felony to stream songs without permission

Owners of websites that stream music and videos without the permission of copyright holders could soon be prosecuted as felons if Congress passes a new proposal from United States Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante. The Hill reports that Pallante is urging Congress to make illegal content streaming a felony that’s on par with illegally making copyrighted content available for download. Pallante said that “there is a gap in the law” between content streaming and more traditional content piracy while contending that going after content streamers for misdemeanors wasn’t enough to dissuade them.

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“If there is illegal streaming happening, especially in an egregious, willful, profit-driven kind of way, how do you get at that activity if the best that you can do is go after them for a misdemeanor?” she said. “Whether you’re streaming the Super Bowl, whether you’re streaming music, a movie, the point is that you don’t always need to have a copy, and the consumer may not want a copy.”

This article was originally published on BGR.com