Big Content has managed to slip a law which would make illegal streaming for commercial profit a felony into a law providing assistance to individuals and businesses hit by COVID-19.

The gigantic spending bill involved has become the opportunity to smuggle in some other line items including those of special interest to the entertainment community.

It's been less than two weeks since Sen. Thom Tillis released his proposal to increase the penalties for those who would dare stream unlicensed works. About a decade ago, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar made a similar proposal before it ended up dying as people worried about sending Justin Bieber to jail.

This time, Tillis' attempt was winning better reviews for more narrowly tailoring the provisions toward commercial operators rather than users. The law had no time to circulate before evidently becoming part of the spending package.

If passed, illegal streaming of works including movies and musical works could carry up to 10 years in jail. That's not the only copyright change either.

Other parts of the bill of interest to Hollywood is an extension of Section 181, a tax provision that allows for immediate deduction of television and film production costs up to $15 million. That incentive was scheduled to expire at the end of the year, but would now get an additional five years.