For those who need to catch up:
Viacom (CBS, Comedy Central) is suing YouTube/Google for $1 billion for facilitating copyright violations when videos (e.g. Daily Show, Colbert, CBS News) are uploaded to the YouTube site.
During discovery, Viacom demanded that Google turn over just about everything in its database, and the trial judge has ruled that they will have to turn over:
* all data concerning what videos users watched and uploaded;
* usernames;
* user IP addresses.
It's yet another example of the copyright laws being used to suppress free speech. Don't buy it? Read below the fold.
Once again, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is at the forefront of challenging this judge's ruling. Why does it matter?
Think about how often posting "copyrighted" videos has been employed in the cause of disseminating the truth and furthering the progressive cause.
What if YouTube and/or Daily Kos, LLC gets sued every time a video is uploaded to their site:
* when a Stephen-Colbert-at-the-Correspondents'-Dinner event takes place;
* every time Hannity, O'Reilly or Beck is caught lying or saying something outrageous;
* when Fox News' captioning demonstrates their bias?
Posting videos of media activity has done a lot to set the record straight during the past couple of years. What if that can all be squelched by Fox & Company suing whenever something embarrassing or revealing is posted?
And what if they could get the IP of the person who posted it and sue them for copyright violation? Before you dismiss that as a trivial possibility, remember the Jammie Thomas case where a Minnesota jury awarded a $220,000 judgment against a mother of two for having some music files in an accessible Kazaa folder.
Copyright is being used more and more as a weapon against free political expression. Do you think the beating that Nedra Pickler has taken in the progressive blogs might have something to do with AP's crazed policy against quoting their stories online?
Fight back. Direct a little money toward EFF. They deserve the help.
And use VPN when you upload those O'Reilly videos to DK. That asshole is mean enough to sue you for everything you've got.