Haynes and Boone, LLP Partner Joseph Matal was quoted in a Law360 article about the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act, which will make large-scale illegal streaming a felony and was passed late last year after being tucked into a huge government spending bill.
Here is an excerpt:
Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others called the legislation a "controversial" intellectual property measure and urged lawmakers not to include it in the spending bill. Last month, the EFF reiterated the position, saying in a post on its website that "it isn't a great law — we simply do not need more penalties for copyright infringement."
The bill's narrow application had led some lawyers to suspect that the new law won't result in a significant number of new convictions, with Joseph Matal of Haynes and Boone, LLP, a former acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, telling Law360 last year, "No one should be sitting around expecting the Justice Department to suddenly be bringing a slew of felony streaming cases."
On Monday, Matal predicted that if the DOJ does use the law to go after illegal streamers, it would primarily pick on "major enterprises," many of which are located overseas.
To read the full article, click here.
Here is an excerpt:
Last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others called the legislation a "controversial" intellectual property measure and urged lawmakers not to include it in the spending bill. Last month, the EFF reiterated the position, saying in a post on its website that "it isn't a great law — we simply do not need more penalties for copyright infringement."
The bill's narrow application had led some lawyers to suspect that the new law won't result in a significant number of new convictions, with Joseph Matal of Haynes and Boone, LLP, a former acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, telling Law360 last year, "No one should be sitting around expecting the Justice Department to suddenly be bringing a slew of felony streaming cases."
On Monday, Matal predicted that if the DOJ does use the law to go after illegal streamers, it would primarily pick on "major enterprises," many of which are located overseas.
To read the full article, click here.