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.

You can fight back by clicking here.

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.

Just click here to sign Demand Progress’s petition to ICE.

Read TechDirt’s take on the arrest.

HT: @aaronw.