Significant intellectual property law provisions are part of the
$2.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress.
Copyrights
In the copyright area, the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of
2020 is directed to curbing "commercial, for-profit
streaming piracy services" that profit from streaming
unlicensed or otherwise illegally copied copyrighted material.
Penalties could include significant fines and imprisonment. The law
currently has a carve-out for "individuals who access pirated
streams or unwittingly stream unauthorized copies of copyrighted
works."
The new laws also include the
CASE Act. This law creates a Copyright Claims Board including a
panel of Copyright Claims Officers to rule on copyright
infringement claims. The CASE Act seeks to create a more efficient
approach to certain copyright infringement claims, and provides for
$30,000 in damages for illegally streaming copyrighted content.
