Streaming Game Footage to Become Illegal?

Odds are if you're a gamer who uses the Internet, you probably know what a "Let's Play" is. For those who don't, "Let's Plays" are when people film themselves playing various games while commentating on them. They became really popular in the last few years, especially with the rise of Minecraft. I personally have enjoyed several of these videos and even put some thought into some of my own.

Visitors of Youtube may know that some music videos (and just videos where the song plays) get pulled on a regular basis, usually by the distributor of the music. These distributors would rather host the video on their own channels and can argue copyright infringement. Unfortunately, there are some videos that get pulled without a replacement from the artists, making it harder and harder to track down certain things. Movies of course get the same treatment; people who post whole movies on Youtube usually have them pulled by the distributor. There must be people whose only job nowadays is to look for their companies' stuff hosted illegally.

Games have never really been persecuted in this way. Game footage and "Let's Plays" are everywhere and are very rarely pulled (usually only if the footage is under NDA or not released). This may change very soon. A Senate Bill is underway that hopes to make streaming any unauthorized content, including game footage, a felony. Music and movie streaming copyrights aren't quite a crime yet but if this bill passes, it will apply to music, movies, and games (and anything else, of course).

This would be a very harsh penalty for gamers just look to entertain or show others a cool game. Most game developers seem to be okay with game footage showing up on websites and I think it's for one simple reason: the point of a game is to actually play it. Companies could care less about streamed gameplay because it probably actually sells more copies of the game, showing potential consumers a game they may want to buy. I personally have bought more than one game from Giantbomb's Quick Looks (a 20-40 min playing of a new game) or "Let's Plays." For now, we just have to wait and see how the bill progresses. It is in a very early state right now, so there is plenty of time for change.