Washington – Members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Cornyn, introduced legislation that would classify the illicit online streaming of copyrighted content a felony, and bring it into line with other forms of content theft. An entertainment industry coalition, including the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) praised the bill for reconciling the current legal disparity between the unlawful distribution of content through streaming and peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading. “It is high time that the punishment fit the crime. Illegal streaming of stolen content is growing and poses a threat to the profitability of movie theaters and to the jobs of our 160,000 employees in the US,” said John Fithian, president and CEO of NATO. Under current federal law, a legal distinction exists between illegal streaming and downloading – two methods of distributing the same stolen, digital content. This legislation would make the illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony, thereby standardizing its criminal classification with that of illegal P2P downloading, already a felony.