[ga] Re: [ PRIVACY Forum ] Strangling the Net: Stripping DMCA Protections from YouTube

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lauren and all,

  Execellent information.  Orgs such as ICANN are already 
indirectly attempting to do the very thing this action
would be, or is seeking to impose. This is not to say that
I support some of Google/YouTubes or Viacoms actions to 
thwart others copyrights as such is not tenable or proper 
to be sure.   


-----Original Message-----
>From: privacy@xxxxxxxxxx
>Sent: May 11, 2010 2:53 PM
>To: privacy-list@xxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [ PRIVACY Forum ] Strangling the Net: Stripping DMCA Protections from 
>YouTube
>
>
>
>          Strangling the Net: Stripping DMCA Protections from YouTube
>
>                  http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000716.html
>
>
>Greetings.  An amicus curiae brief was filed a few days ago by the
>Washington Legal Foundation in the ongoing Viacom vs. YouTube/Google
>lawsuit ( http://bit.ly/bN18dt [PDF - Lauren's Blog] ).
>
>Even by the normal standards of our adversarial legal system, this
>brief is startling not only in the depth of its misleading and just
>plain inaccurate arguments, but also in the implications that its
>"logic" would have for the Internet at large.
>
>Despite Google's implementation of a comprehensive "video
>fingerprinting" system to aid in the identification of copyrighted
>materials that rights holders wish to remove from the YouTube
>environment, the brief's arguments that services such as YouTube are
>not deserving of DMCA protections are clearly disingenuous.
>
>This is especially true when viewed in light of the abusive behavior
>that has been revealed on the part of Viacom in their attempt to
>"game" YouTube for their own purposes, even while Viacom was
>simultaneously complaining about YouTube operations -- the textbook
>definition of hypocrisy.
>
>It's crucial to understand that such arguments are part of an
>increasingly shrill campaign being promulgated by powerful interests
>who desperately wish to "reimagine" the Internet as primarily an
>entertainment industry conduit, where ISPs and Web sites -- even
>search engines -- would be forced into the role of Content Cops,
>potentially required to "approve" every posting by every user, at the
>risk of massive financial liabilities.
>
>The ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is largely oriented
>toward creating this sort of requirement at the international
>level, as are many of the dangerous calls to eliminate all forms
>of anonymous Internet usage ( http://bit.ly/btYVyO [Lauren's Blog] ).
>
>The negative implications of such a regime -- which would turn the
>entire concepts of free speech and the existing DMCA "safe harbor" on
>their heads, extend vastly beyond the scope of YouTube.
>
>As I've noted before, I have many friends in the music and film
>industries here in L.A., and I certainly appreciate their intellectual
>property concerns.
>
>But while it's reasonable for intellectual property to be protected in
>appropriately measured ways, it is unacceptable to turn the Internet
>into a surveillance monster where every Web site is required to
>proactively and continually monitor and censor the postings of every
>user -- largely to meet the goals of a few massive entertainment
>industry conglomerates.
>
>Basic principles of fair use, free speech, privacy, and civil
>liberties more broadly, require that we resist attempts to remake the
>Internet into a permission-based liability leviathan, strangling users
>in a suffocating maze of restrictions that benefit the few while
>penalizing, intimidating, and muzzling the many.
>
>--Lauren--
>Lauren Weinstein
>lauren@xxxxxxxxxx
>Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
>http://www.pfir.org/lauren
>Co-Founder, PFIR
>   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
>Co-Founder, NNSquad
>   - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
>Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition 
>   for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
>Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
>Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
>Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
>Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
>
>_______________________________________________
>privacy mailing list
>http://lists.vortex.com/mailman/listinfo/privacy

Regards,

Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 294k members/stakeholders and growing, 
strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very
often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

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P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
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