YouTube/Google Vs. Viacom

[paraka]

By now everyone has heard about the court order for Google to hand over all it's user data to Viacom right?

As fandom we're particularly vulnerable to copyright laws. What are your reactions to this decision?

Comments

slippery slope to repeal freedom

[lemonpiefirefly.livejournal.com]

I am hoping we're heading for another 60s-style expansion of freedoms soon, because this spiral into McCarthyism and other Patriot Act and DRM bullshite is getting OLD.

This got way too long, and I don't see a way to do a cut in a reply, so I am moving the bulk of my rant over to my journal....

Re: slippery slope to repeal freedom

[paraka]

What I hate about it, is *people* are being ignored for big companies. Hell, in Canada, even the artist are being ignored. A copyright law recently passed (actually I found out that it passed while in Dallas) here in Canada that really closely mirrors what's currently law in the US. Canadians cried out against it. Canadian *artists* cried out against it. But the US has been pretty heavy handed in making it's trading partners change their copyright laws to more closely reflect the US laws, so Canadians were ignored and the law was passed.

I was reading a blog on the CBC website yesterday where the guy was basically saying "Why are people upset about this, Viacom isn't allowed to do anything with the information they are getting, other than present it at court." And I replied saying a couple things, but one, a US court shouldn't have the right to order international information over (espeically since that order goes against a lot of copyright laws for the countries where some of the information was gathered). And two, the US is the country out there being the "trend setters" for copyright law, and they're doing a crappy job about it!

I really hope that people can stand up and get this kind of thing stopped. I joined the EFF because of this, and I think I'm going to try my best to boycott Viacom. There may be angry letters in the future.

[kronos999.livejournal.com]

Bill C-61 has taken up my righteous anger. I only have room left for despair. And a certain amount of frustration at people who aren't getting angry about all of this stuff or don't see why it matters. So, in summation, GAH!

[paraka]

I'm so there with you. I wrote to my MP about Bill C-61, but it's pretty obvious that the Canadian governement wasn't listening to the Canadian people (or hell, even the Canadian creators whom copyright is supposed to protect) when they made their changes.

When I was googling this info yesterday, I came across a CBC Blog basically saying "Don't worry, your info isn't going to be abused by Viacom" to which my fist thought was "yeah right" but I left a comment saying that's not the point, it's the fact that American seems to be the country setting copyright laws that other countries adapt (as shown by the recent changes to Canadian copyright law) and they're doing a really bad job of it. Among other reasons.

I wish there was more we, as a people and not big corporations, could do.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

That's...hmm. I don't know enough about the case to have an educated opinion (does it really matter if the copyrighted videos are more popular than user-generated videos or is that just a smokescreen for getting their hands on the data?), but I can see Viacom's point. It's a slippery slope, as someone else mentioned and I hope the ruling is reversed, but the problem is that in a lot of ways we really do violate copyright laws. It's nice to think that everyone will let it slide, but that's not the reality.

Interesting case, and I hadn't heard about it so thanks for posting.

[paraka]

Well, Viacom is trying to come off as all innocent in the matter saying that they can't *do* anything with the information, other than use it in court. But I don't believe them. If they were as innocent as they're trying to sound, than whey the hell aren't they letting Google anonymize the data first? Because as it stands, Google has to turn over the data stating usernames, identifiers (I think it's a number), IP addresses and other personal information on who's watching what video when. If they simply wanted to prove that copyrighted material is watched more than home made material, than why do they need IP addresses? Why do they need usernames? Why do they need half the information that they're calling for? Google *asked* if they could take the personal information out of what they're handing over, and were shot down. So, I'm really not going to believe that Viacom has the purist intentions when it comes to this information.