Court allows corporate invasion of privacy
By Libby
This can't be good. Seeking $1 billion in damages, Viacom brought suit against YouTube/Google for copyright violations and the court just ordered YouTube to turn over user information to Viacom as part of the discovery process, calling privacy concerns "speculative." The mandated information will include all data concerning what videos users watched and uploaded; usernames and passwords; and user IP addresses.
EFF has more on the legal ramifications of this ruling but it's clear even to the layman that this information could potentially be used to identify political dissenters. I would think it also exposes anyone who had ever posted one of the disputed YouTubes on their blogs, which would include such video as clips of Comedy Central or or various news programs, to possible legal action.
It seems unlikely to me that Viacom could prove they suffered a loss of revenue by the sharing of clips. If anything, it exposes their product to additional viewers that are likely to then watch more of the programming live. But it certainly could put a chill on the many blogs that focus on media criticism by making it impossible to post clips to expose the misstatements and other biases of the legacy press without risking expensive law suits that few could afford to defend.
Yet another reason we need to break up the media congolomerates and put the news back into the hand of local and regional players.
This can't be good. Seeking $1 billion in damages, Viacom brought suit against YouTube/Google for copyright violations and the court just ordered YouTube to turn over user information to Viacom as part of the discovery process, calling privacy concerns "speculative." The mandated information will include all data concerning what videos users watched and uploaded; usernames and passwords; and user IP addresses.
EFF has more on the legal ramifications of this ruling but it's clear even to the layman that this information could potentially be used to identify political dissenters. I would think it also exposes anyone who had ever posted one of the disputed YouTubes on their blogs, which would include such video as clips of Comedy Central or or various news programs, to possible legal action.
It seems unlikely to me that Viacom could prove they suffered a loss of revenue by the sharing of clips. If anything, it exposes their product to additional viewers that are likely to then watch more of the programming live. But it certainly could put a chill on the many blogs that focus on media criticism by making it impossible to post clips to expose the misstatements and other biases of the legacy press without risking expensive law suits that few could afford to defend.
Yet another reason we need to break up the media congolomerates and put the news back into the hand of local and regional players.
Labels: Corporatocracy, Media, rule of law
posted by Libby Spencer at 3:08 PM
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