Amazing events on Digg today with users up in arms over Digg removing a post linking to those numbers (09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0) that the MPAA don’t want us to see. All activity on the front page of Digg is around posts linking to the #.
I find it amazing that Digg would even try to censor something that is:
- In the public domain
- So close to the hearts of its community (MPAA bashing)
I don’t think this will have any long term effect on Digg, it will return to normal over the next couple of weeks (yes, I think it will take a little while to settle down) but I think it will have an enormous impact on Web 2.0, user generated and the legal responsibility of a service provider to moderate, control and govern its users.
A lot of organisations will now think twice before giving users as much power as they have been given by the first wave of user generated sites.
Things will change. Web 2.0 has just grown up.
Viva la revolution!
Update: Digg have given up moderating and have decided to go down fighting. I think that may be the end.
Viacom’s suing of Google for $US 1 million is laughable. Copyright is such a massive issue in this age of digital distribution and it appears that copyright holders are getting increasingly desperate in their attempts to plug the dike.
Viacom and Google were obviously unable to reach a compromise in their negotiations so Viacom decided to become the schoolyard bully who didn’t like it when he got pushed around and ran to the head master.
“After months of ongoing discussions with YouTube and Google, it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users,” Viacom said. “Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorized video.”
It is slack, lazy, opportunistic, unnecessarily aggressive and ultimately foolish for Viacom to pursue Google over this. GoogTube certainly isn’t the only place in the world where Viacom’s copyright is being infringed but they are the only target because they have the deepest pockets.
Seems to me that Viacom’s legal department have spotted some low hanging fruit and they are heading in for the harvest.
Amazing events on Digg today with users up in arms over Digg removing a post linking to those numbers (09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0) that the MPAA don’t want us to see. All activity on the front page of Digg is around posts linking to the #.
