CyberLaw Blog

Archive for September 11th, 2008

Updated Community Guidelines: “As the YouTube Community expands and evolves, we’re always trying to keep pace by creating policies that reflect innovative new uses of YouTube and the diverse content posted by users every day.

We realize it’s not always obvious where we draw the line on content that’s acceptable to upload. Our goal is to help you to be able to keep your videos up and also keep your account in good standing. With this in mind, we’ve updated the Community Guidelines to address some of the most common questions users ask us about inappropriate content. Included in the update are a few new things to steer clear of, like not directly inciting violence or encouraging other users to violate the Terms of Use.

If you haven’t taken a look at the YouTube Community Guidelines lately, go check them out. We’ve also added tips and examples in our Help Center to explain our policies on hate speech, violence and other content.

We know most of you video heads are not necessarily interested in reading a novel, but this is an essential read for anyone with a YouTube account.

The YouTube Team“

(Via YouTube Blog.)

OiNK BitTorrent admin faces fraud prosecution: “

Uploaders to be hauled before the beak, too

Cleveland police have charged Alan Ellis, the former administrator of the defunct BitTorrent tracker site OiNK.cd, with conspiracy to defraud the record industry.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

French storm the bastille over ‘Sarkozy’s Big Sister’ database: “

Je ne suis pas un nombre

Imagine, if you will, an announcement by the UK Government that it is going to create a new database to track anyone over the age of 13, who has been ‘active in politics or the trade unions or who has a significant role in business, the media, entertainment or social or religious institutions’. Let’s say 20 million individuals who the authorities believe are ‘likely to breach public order’.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Groups Urge Senate Not To Turn The Justice Department Into Hollywood’s Private Police Force: “As we noted earlier this summer, Senator Patrick Leahy had introduced a companion bill to the House’s dreadful Pro-IP bill, except that Leahy’s bill went further. Beyond just adding a ‘Copyright Czar’ position to the White House, it would authorize the Justice Department to start prosecuting civil copyright infringement lawsuits. In other words, it would have the government act as the private police for of the entertainment industry. This is scary stuff. Beyond already handing out unnecessary gov’t granted monopolies, the gov’t would now be using taxpayer money to settle business disputes from an industry that was only in trouble because it stubbornly refused to update its business model.

It’s difficult to see why taxpayers should be paying FBI agents to protect one industry’s obsolete business model.

A bunch of special interest groups made that argument to Senators this week, noting that it was a pure gift to Hollywood — pointing out that all of the companies and groups in the industry already have their own enforcement arms, and it made little sense to have the FBI take part in private business disputes. Hopefully, there are still enough Senators who haven’t been convinced by the propaganda provided by the entertainment industry on this issue to recognize what’s actually at stake here.

(Via Techdirt.)