Knocking at Privacy’s Door
Have you ever gone to YouTube to look at funny, strange and interesting videos? Did you know that Google, the company that owns YouTube, has a record of every transaction you ever made. It is not illegal to look at videos. It is not illegal to upload your own videos to YouTube. It is illegal to download videos from YouTube that have a copyright. Ruh roh. Will law enforcement agencies be knocking at your door? If you have ever downloaded copyrighted videos for your own use, you broke the law in the US.
What brought about the suit Viacom vs Google? Viacom charges Google, which bought YouTube in 2006, acts as a willing accomplice to Internet users who put clips of Viacom’s copyrighted television programs on the popular video-sharing website. Viacom, a giant in the entertainment industry, sued for rights to obtain user information in order to identify YouTube users who are committing copyright infringement. They say that users who upload their own videos are small in numbers compared to those who use YouTube to download copyrighted material.
This is just one more way our privacy is being invaded.
I have many opinions about many things. Let me know what you think.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Google will appeal and hopefully a different judge will put more restrictions on exactly what data has to be turned over.