Now It's 1984. Knock, Knock At Your Front Door.....

I know that after this weeks watershed ruling by the Supreme Court, we are in a celebratory mood about how the government percieves and treats our community, but we are far from out of the woods folks.

Enter: bill S.978 aka the "Ten Strikes" bill. Should this bill be passed (and apparently it has a good chance to) acts such as uploading a video of you playing a game to YouTube, streaming a video game tournament, or just posting a video of yourself lip syncing to Lady Gaga will be punishable by IMPRISONMENT! What's more, the bill is so broad that with a evil good enough lawyer, a copyright holder could put people in jail for a dizzying array of completely innocuous actions involving their copyrighted work.

I could write volumes on why this bill is such a gross overreach, and how it could effect gamer and internet culture, but someone already did. David "UltraDavid" Graham is an entertainment copyright lawyer by day and a valued member of the competetive fighting game scene by night, participating in community events, casting tournament matches and writing pieces for www.Shoryuken.com.

If you have, the time, give the whole thing a read. If you don't, scroll down to the bottom for the TL;DR version and click the link to "Demand Progress". By filling in your name and email address there, a letter will be sent on your behalf to your law makers to oppose this bill. Go do it before the suede/denim secret police come for your uncool niece!