VHS-Era Privacy Law Still Causing Headaches For Streaming Video

jfruh (300774) writes "The Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 law that made it illegal for a video store to share your rental history, has thrown up roadblocks for modern-day streaming video sites. Last year Congress amended the law to make it possible for you to share your Netflix viewing history with your social media friends, as long as you opt in. But what does "opting in" entail? Hulu is now on the receiving end of a lawsuit over the fact that clicking the Facebook "like" button on a viewing page shares that viewing activity on Facebook."

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recorded video in 1980s

[k6mfw]

Going OT but I have a several VHS tapes of various shows and movies recorded in 1980s of OTA broadcasts. Other day viewed one and it is still watchable, I probably should copy them all before it's too late. Very interesting especially the commercials. CNN broadcasted live interview (and the anchors were journalists back then) with a Space Shuttle crew, there was a few minutes of trying to patch in audio (CNN anchors could hear the crew but audio uplink first didn't work). This was before TDRSS so they had only 10 minutes to resolve this and finally in last minute got audio patched in and were able to have a brief interview.