Important days ahead for future of the Net

THE Net headlines this week have been dominated by Viacom’s Round One victory in its legal battle with Google, owners of YouTube, over copy-right infringement.

A judge rules that Google must hand Vicom a 12,000 Gigabyte database recording every time a YouTube clip was watched and by whom. If you watched any YouTube clip, the details will be included. They will not identify you by name, but you’re IP Address and any login name you used will be there.

The one billion dollar claim against Google is for the copyrighted material that users uploaded to the site. Google say it is the fault of those users and that it complies wit the Law by removing illegal material once notified. However, this excuse is a bit thin given that you do not need to try hard at all to see blantant infringements on the site.

For instance, I am writing this Sunday afternoon (13 July 2008), and already I can watch still warm, if grainy, clips of the yet to finish Nadal vs Federer tennis marathon . Broadcasters’ copyrights count for nothing here.






It could yet be that Viacom will seek to use the data in question to go after those who posted their clips on the site. What do you think? Are these YouTube users performing a helpful public service or should the book be thrown at them?

One way or another, this is an important case. The nature of the Net,. The accessibility of Information and the privacy with which we use of it may all be at stake.

David is a IT Consultant and Website Designer Birmingham providing computer Bits and Bobs, Tips and Tricks, His Website Design Company is here Veritas Webdesigns for further information.

Important days ahead for future of the Net / Author: Web-Architekt

Occupation: Website Designer
David is an IT Consultant and Website Designer based in Birmingham UK – his services in summary; Website Design and Search Engine Optimisation SEO services – Birmingham Website Design Services specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), internet web marketing and web advertising to the Birmingham market place. Jump over to my website and see for yourself. go on you know you want too….”entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem”
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