The omnibus funding bill Congress passed contains the controversial CASE Act, introduces a small claims copyright system, and may increase copyright trolling
and threaten Internet users with huge fines? https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ... Eric Goldman / @ericgoldman : Just to put things in perspective, you're going to need 50 stimulus checks to cover the damages demanded by a copyright owner in your first CASE Act proceeding https://www.theverge.com/... @fightfortheftr : @AOC Thank you for amplifying this @AOC. Folks can learn more about these dangerous #copyright changes here https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ... And sign our petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/... Policy changes that impact Internet freedom should NEVER be made in this manner. RT if you agree! Staci D Kramer / @sdkstl : Enbedding the $900 million stimulus package in the $1.4+ trillion omnibus spending bill is causing an f-ton of conflation and confusion. Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : As Senator Wyden notes, there have been fixes to the CASE Act on the table. One side ignored those fixes, and have now rammed through the broken bill. https://twitter.com/... Ron Wyden / @ronwyden : I have been working for more than a year to make common sense changes to this bill to better serve users AND creators. Unfortunately, the CASE Act was rammed through without those improvements. https://twitter.com/... Samuel B. Johnson / @sbjohnsrpi : This really is an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation. If you enjoy sharing memes on the internet, or casually use clip art for your small business' social media feed, and you don't have an extra $30k lying around, call your senators and congressperson now. https://twitter.com/... @ovenotter : Update: There are now 3. And all of them have made it into the stimulus bill to be voted on today. They will all more than likely pass. https://www.techdirt.com/... I'm so fucking tired of this country. This is going to have unprecedented effects on how we use the internet. https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : A quickly dashed off post about how Congress and its leadership sold the internet out to Hollywood AGAIN by sneaking bad CASE Act and felony streaming into the omnibus bill. Includes the 3,100 page text of the bill. Everyone should be furious at this. https://www.techdirt.com/... Erik Moeller / @xirzon : Impossible to overstate how utterly broken a decision-making process is where legislation that's obviously against the public interest is routinely slipped into “must-pass” bills: https://twitter.com/... Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff : Worth noting that the rip and replace effort gets more funding than rural broadband https://www.axios.com/... Chris / @ruralchrislee : Included in the COVID relief package is $7 billion in funding for broadband internet access — an important development for families. Furthermore, $300M for rural broadband deployment and $1B for Tribal broadband programs is also part of the deal. https://www.axios.com/... @resistbot : “The broadband funding includes a new $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit that will provide $50 per month for broadband for low-income families, a provision based on legislation from Sen. Ron Wyden” https://www.axios.com/... See also Mediagazer
TechdirtMike Masnick
Context & Ripple Effects
The CASE Act became law by riding in the year-end omnibus funding bill — the same vehicle carrying billions in broadband money, including $7B for broadband access and a $3.2B Emergency Broadband Benefit. Sen. Ron Wyden sought fixes to the small-claims copyright tribunal but, per the coverage, it was rammed through without them.
It fits a December pattern: while the CASE Act slipped through the omnibus, Mitch McConnell was separately tying $2,000 stimulus checks to a Section 230 repeal, making must-pass legislation the delivery mechanism of choice for contested internet policy.
First-order effects
Individual internet users gain a new exposure: a small-claims copyright proceeding whose demanded damages, as Eric Goldman framed it, would take roughly 50 stimulus checks to cover.
Rights holders get a venue built for volume filings, while opponents like Fight for the Future immediately organize petitions against the changes.
Second-order effects
As filing costs drop, copyright trolling scales toward ordinary users rather than platforms, pushing ISPs and intermediaries to absorb more dispute and takedown traffic.
Advocacy groups will likely press Congress for opt-out or corrective legislation, forcing lawmakers who never debated the provision to own its consequences.
Third-order effects
If the rider strategy holds — the CASE Act here, Section 230 leverage there — contested internet policy increasingly bypasses standalone debate and hardens into default law via spending bills.
A working small-claims pipeline could normalize mass statutory-damages demands against households, shifting copyright enforcement downstream from platforms to individual users.
The trend: Congress is enacting contested internet policy through must-pass funding vehicles rather than standalone votes, with broadband money and copyright enforcement traveling in the same bill.
Videographers would be subject to harassing lawsuits using copyright materials Meme creators would be subject to harassing lawsuits for using copyright materials. https://www.techdirt.com/... https://twitter.com/...
This really is an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation. If you enjoy sharing memes on the internet, or casually use clip art for your small business' social media feed, and you don't have an extra $30k lying around, call your senators and congressperson now. https://twitter.com/..…
In Germany last year and back further, there were massive protests on the streets because of a very similar dcma bill. But that was before. Now you can only protest in your own home, and wearing a mask https://twitter.com/...
Update: There are now 3. And all of them have made it into the stimulus bill to be voted on today. They will all more than likely pass. https://www.techdirt.com/... I'm so fucking tired of this country. This is going to have unprecedented effects on how we use the internet. https…
The idea that inadvertently sharing something copyrighted could lead to a 30,000 dollar fine (enough to destroy most people financially) is as good a case as I've ever seen for permanently logging off. https://www.theverge.com/...
Hollywood and its Copyright Cartel allies couldn't get this horrible law passed alone, so they got their lackeys in Congress to sneak it into the covid relief / omnibus funding bill. This will slam your rights in ways you can't begin to imagine. https://www.theverge.com/...
I mean, clearly, there's no way we can begin to undo the economic damage of COVID until we make it easier for copyright holders to extract crippling monetary damages from some kid who sent his friend a bootleg of the latest Will Ferrell movie. https://www.theverge.com/...
The COVID bill just effectively criminalized use of the internet and potentially turned everyone into felons This should have been enough to reject the bill, let alone the inadequacy of the cash payment Words cannot express how bad this Congress is https://www.theverge.com/...
As Senator Wyden notes, there have been fixes to the CASE Act on the table. One side ignored those fixes, and have now rammed through the broken bill. https://twitter.com/...
I have been working for more than a year to make common sense changes to this bill to better serve users AND creators. Unfortunately, the CASE Act was rammed through without those improvements. https://twitter.com/...
Changes to copyright should never be made as part of a last-minute must-pass spending bill. This is outrageous. Everyone who has been tweeting #StopDMCA needs to pay attention and get ready to fight like hell https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
With billions of dollars being invested in #broadband through the new COVID relief bill, households will receive overdue help to get online and access education, healthcare, telework, and so much more that we take for granted. Simply put, this is huge. https://www.axios.com/...
A quickly dashed off post about how Congress and its leadership sold the internet out to Hollywood AGAIN by sneaking bad CASE Act and felony streaming into the omnibus bill. Includes the 3,100 page text of the bill. Everyone should be furious at this. https://www.techdirt.com/...
Impossible to overstate how utterly broken a decision-making process is where legislation that's obviously against the public interest is routinely slipped into “must-pass” bills: https://twitter.com/...
Wait, what the-?! They're literally trying to add felony sentences to DMCA claims? This puts my random DMCA claim into perspective it seems. They want us all in Gulags. https://twitter.com/...
STATEMENT: “This is atrocious.” Congress could only muster $600 checks for COVID relief but managed to cram controversial changes to copyright into the spending bill as a handout to corporations like Disney—and threaten Internet users with huge fines? https://www.fightforthefutur…
Just to put things in perspective, you're going to need 50 stimulus checks to cover the damages demanded by a copyright owner in your first CASE Act proceeding https://www.theverge.com/...
@AOC Thank you for amplifying this @AOC. Folks can learn more about these dangerous #copyright changes here https://www.fightforthefuture.org/ ... And sign our petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/... Policy changes that impact Internet freedom should NEVER be made in this ma…
Included in the COVID relief package is $7 billion in funding for broadband internet access — an important development for families. Furthermore, $300M for rural broadband deployment and $1B for Tribal broadband programs is also part of the deal. https://www.axios.com/...
“The broadband funding includes a new $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit that will provide $50 per month for broadband for low-income families, a provision based on legislation from Sen. Ron Wyden” https://www.axios.com/...