Should Lip-Syncing Videos Be Illegal?

One of the things that non-musicians love to do is make videos where they lip-synch to their favorite song. And it's not just kids either; there may be as many 30 year olds as 8 year olds doing it. While this all may seem innocent enough, it's actually a copyright violation, and the new U.S. Senate bill 978 would toughen the copyright laws and make it illegal to upload lip-synced videos.

Just as an example, this kid has over 40 million views for his lip-sync of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream."

Up until now most record labels would let a lip-sync like this one slide or at worst issue a take-down notice where YouTube or the posting service would delete it. However, the new bill would take the penalty a new level, like up to five years in prison, even if you're not making any money!

There are several schools of thought on this:

   * From the record label: "This is a copyright violation. They're illegally using our song without paying us."

  * From the Music 3.0 artist: "This is great promotion. Fans like my song enough to make like they're singing it."

  * From the fan: "I'm just having a little fun. I'm not making any money on this and I'm not hurting anybody."

Which one do you agree with?

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