Google Must Divulge Video Viewing Habits Of Every YouTube User, Says US Court

Viacom vs GoogleThis is potentially huge. Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, has been involved in a legal battle with YouTube (and now Google) over what Viacom alleges is massive copyright infringement of their property. Viacom claims to have identified 160,000 unauthorised clips of its programmes.

Now, a US court has told Google that it must hand over the a detailed log – some 12 terabytes of data – which contains the log-in ID of all users, as well as their IP address and information on all the video clips they have ever watched. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights group, has called the ruling “a set-back to privacy rights.”

And it is. I mean, there’s nothing really explicit or illegal on YouTube (I think), but the idea that a corporation has the right to snoop around the viewing habits of everybody, just because 160,000 clips, out of an estimated 1.5 billion YouTube video clips, may or may not contain copyright material, is pretty scandalous.

It’s not just Viacom, either; the UK’s Premier League is also filing a lawsuit against Google claiming that YouTube has been used to show football highlights. I mean, really – highlights? What’s the big deal?

YouTube has responded by initialising new filtering tools to prevent copyright materials being uploaded to their site. Last time I looked, they didn’t appear to be working too well.

A spokesman for the EFF said, “The Court’s erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube. We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.”

How long until YouTube ‘does a Napster’, and becomes a shallow, big business-friendly version of itself (i.e., with no users), or disappears altogether? All it’s going to take is a Viacom victory – or whoever else decides to go to bat against Google. Until then, be careful what you watch – do you really want Viacom to know that you’ve seen the laughing baby ten thousand times?

Tags: ,



How HDTVs will destroy mankind

Ok, I have to admit I went a little over the top there with that headline. Nonetheless, it seems that LCD TVs could soon become an environmental hazard when people start sending them to the landfills to replace them with shiny new models.

For now, they’re not really dangerous, but eventually, when people start dumping them in their garbage bins, a deadly gas named Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) contained in LCD panels will start dissipating in the environment. NF3 is apparently 17,200 worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. And on top of this, it seems that the gas is highly harmful to the liver and kidneys if inhaled. Better be careful next time you decide to smash that LCD display while inside your house.

[Via CrunchGear]



Stanford’s STARMAC: The surveillance drones of tomorrow?

Stanford’s STARMAC, short for Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control, is probably one of the coolest remote-control helicopters we’ve ever seen.

This is not a toy, remote-driven helicopter. The primary goal of the STARMAC project is to test and develop algorithms that will be implemented in future autonomous flying devices, such as the little flying cameras you see everywhere in Half-Life 2.

< TinFoilHatMode >Paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists will soon want to take up permanent residence in their underground lairs, because in a few years, individual privacy will be a thing of the past. These robots will be everywhere, looking at you and recording your every move, and the thing is, your probably even won’t notice because of new cloaking technologies that are being developed right now!< /TinFoilHatMode > Video after the jump.

Continue reading ›

Verizon Offers Geek 101 Classes

Blackberry BoldGeeks, as we all know, rule the world. Would you like to be one, too? Maybe you’re not quite geek enough. Maybe you know somebody who is crying out to be a geek, but they don’t know where to start.

Maybe – heavens, say it ain’t so – you don’t own a Blackberry. Or – and it’s best to whisper this part – even know what one is.

You’re in luck. Verizon, the US telecom company, is offering a series of classes for consumers that will not only reveal what their Blackberrys, PDAs and smartphones can do, but encourage them to use them, too. The program is based in NYC, appears to be free, but may be limited to Verizon clients (check with your supplier).

Now, king of the mountaintop geeks like you and I probably won’t be in need of such a class, but as mobile technology becomes more and more advanced (and feature-packed) it is having the potentially negative side-effect of alienating a lot of the older demographic. Verizon have realized, like many others will do if this turns out to be a hit, that that older demographic is extremely cash-rich, but are less than likely to part with their hard-saved dollars on a Blackberry Bold – and that cash-cow of a monthly contract – if they can’t even figure out how to turn the darn thing on.

The classes, which promise tips on texting, music synchronisation and mobile-based email, could be a potential goldmine, and potentially the start of a mass re-education of the populace. Free classes could be made available for everything. If Google spent ten minutes a week teaching people how to use just their search function properly, let alone all of their other features, I’m pretty confident the world would be a happy, shinier place.

Tags:

Countdown Begins For Clone Wars Merchandise

Later today, all 585 Toys “R” Us stores across the United States will mount digital clocks that will count down midnight, July 25. When the counter hits zero, 225 of these stores will begin to sell toys from the latest Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars.

Star Wars - The Clone WarsA virtual store – ToysRUs.com/StarWars – will open at the same time.

Products include The Twilight starship and a separatist Spider Droid, both from LEGO, and a 3 ¾ inch T.I.E. Fighter and ‘Attack Battle Packs’ from Hasbro.

The Clone Wars movie – which is fully animated, and opens August 15 in the US – is not the first Star Wars-related opening for Toys “R” Us, which heavily promoted the three last Star Wars films with midnight-openings, costume competitions and prize giveaways.

“Star Wars is one of the strongest and most iconic brands in the kids market,” said Greg Ahearn, senior vice president for marketing and e-commerce for Toys “R” Us USA. “It really is a beacon that draws people in to our stores 365 days a year. We believe in this brand, and everything we are doing just plays into what we think and feel about the Star Wars property.”

Star Wars - The Clone Wars - Spider Droid

This also marks the first time McDonalds has formed a relationship with the Star Wars franchise – starting August 15, Clone Wars happy meals will be available and, one imagines, in high demand from children worldwide. Each meal features a specially designed box and one of 18 different toys. The promotion will last just a month, which offers a rare opportunity for collectors.

Originally planned as a television feature, The Clone Wars was reformatted for a theatrical release after George Lucas previewed an early draft and decided it would work better on the bigger screen. The film will feature Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee and Anthony Daniels amongst the cast and is intended to precede the animated TV series of the same name which will air on Cartoon Network.

Tags:

PS3 Firmware 2.4: DON’T UPDATE!

Just a quick post to warn Playstation 3 owners to wait a bit before updating their console to the latest firmware. It seems that quite a few users on the official Playstation forum are reporting that the new 2.4 firmware bricked their unit. On some cases, people are writing that the SIXAXIS controller refused to sync after the update, and on others, the PS3 stopped sending video and audio signal to the attached display.

Has anyone updated yet, and if so, is your PS3 still in working condition?

Edit: I’ve received 2 emails in the past few hours telling me that I was, and I quote: “A moron only looking for web hits”. If you guys need further proof that this is a REAL issue, you only have to look at this page on the PS3 official support site.

UPDATE: 7/2/2008, the PLAYSTATION 3 system software version 2.40 has been temporarily taken offline and will not be available for download as our engineers examine any possible issues with this update. The Knowledge Center will be updated with information as it becomes available; please check back here for further details.