Share a Youtube Video. Go to Jail March 5, 2011 by Steve Beckow Thanks to Gloria. Share a YouTube Video? Go to Jail https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/channelsurfing/?akid=333.338895.73lxCw&rd=1&t=1 Ever sent someone a link to a copyrighted YouTube video? Of course: Everybody has. And now the US Government seems to think that means it can put us in prison. Bryan McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various websites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and just today they arrested him for criminal copyright infringement. But the government doesn’t even allege he made a copy of anything! Just that his site linked to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who’s sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal. This is another shocking overreach by the department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a steamship-era department that’s proving once again it doesn’t understand the Internet. We need to push back — and fast — before they try to lock up all Americans. TEXT OF PETITION TO JOHN MORTON, DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: There’s nothing wrong or illegal about posting a link to a website. This is another shocking overreach by ICE: You need to drop the charges against Bryan McCarthy right away. Just sign on at right — we’ll deliver the petition to ICE later this month. Here’s TechDirt’s take on the arrest. We’re trying to get a copy of the charge sheet; we’ll post it here if we get it. Sign our petition: Fill out the required fields below: Name: Email: ZIP: (I’m not in the US) Country: Are you ? Just click here: Click here to sign the petition! (Not ? Click here.) Share this:TwitterFacebookRedditEmail