That's right - The US government has ordered Google to turn over Youtube user information to Viacom Inc., in order to help Viacom in their $1 billion dollar lawsuit against "pirates." Check out this statement from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
"The court’s order grants Viacom's request and erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users. The VPPA passed after a newspaper disclosed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental records. As Congress recognized, your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection."
So, not only will they get info about users that have posted clips of shows they own, they're obtaining private and personal information about the people that watch them!
The digital age is leading to the destruction of commodity fetishism. Viacom Inc. and it's ilk are doing everything in their power to turn back time and destroy everything that we love about the Web, which is without doubt the most amazing worldwide social advancement in human history.
