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Viacom Vs. YouTube, Beyond Privacy

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

Corrupt writes "As Viacom is granted access to YouTube user records, a bigger threat to user-generated sites emerges: The law is increasingly siding with rights owners."

2 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Heard this before by BeerGood · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone here watch sxephil on YouTube? Now there's an opinion.

  2. Re:Hmm by Lunarsight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Slashdotters, otherwise generally intelligent, have a subset who are unable to see this for what it is and believe that copyright should not be respected.

    It's not so much that we believe that copyright shouldn't be respected, but we also see when the legal system is being blatantly manipulated.

    In the case of Viacom, one must ask if they truly need all the data they are asking for, or if a more limited data set would have been sufficient. I think the judge here could have done a better job giving Viacom the tools they needed to make their case without blatantly infringing on the privacy of every Youtube user.

    I can't speak for others, but I personally don't trust Viacom with the data they are requesting. Regardless of what stipulations the judge may have put on the usage of the data, I think it creates a dangerous precedent letting them have it. The RIAA has historically been known to bend and break the rules to get what they want - what's to stop Viacom from doing the same?

    I work in the healthcare industry, and the general rule of thumb is you give the external party the bare minimum amount of data in order to do what they need to do. Any fields that they don't need - you remove them. It's that simple.