Many people already know my opinion on the current state of copyright laws here in America...they suck, they're outdated, and they cater too much to the copyright holders many times shafting the consumer like you would not believe. The latest item to piss me off was the recent decision by some technologically-impaired judge to order Google to release all logs from YouTube to Viacom. This is complete and utter bullshit. Viacom is currently suing Google over copyright violations on YouTube and initially wanted the source code of YouTube...are you freakin' kidding me? Source code, with the exception of open source, is the bread and butter of any software company...its often what gets the company their money. Fortunately the judge was no so tech-retarded to actually allow the source code to be given to Viacom, but in the meantime, something almost just as bad, if not maybe even worse came of it. All the logs from YouTube including what IP addresses/users watched, uploaded, etc. has been ordered to be given to Viacom from Google. The consumers...us...our activities will now be given to Viacom for them to look over. This could have some pretty big implications. Now I realize that while we all like to believe that on the internet we are anonymous, this is definitely by far, not the case, but for some half-witted judge to say that ALL users, EVERYONE, innocent or not to be given over for what may very well become a witch-hunt is in my opinion crossing way over the line. And this is what bugs me as it happens time and time again, judges, who are clueless about computers and technology, who probably know about as much about computers as my great-grandmother are benched for cases that are so technologically involved, you really do need someone who is familiar enough with technology to be able to properly preside over these cases...it's like me trying to run for President of the United States...I'm simply not qualified. And because of their ineptitude, which to be fair is not really their fault, bad decisions are made and poor precedents are set.

Now I do see where Viacom is coming from, they want to protect their copyrights which is understandable, but the methods they are using to do so, take it too far.

The RIAA and MPAA have long said that piracy has impacted their profits, but they convieniently leave out some details. Lets look at a music CD. Someone goes out and pirates it. The RIAA would say it lost a sale, and lost money because of that one person pirating it. But who's to say that that same person would've actually gone out and bought the CD had downloading it not been an option? With the prices of music CD's nowadays, it wouldn't be suprising to see people become very picky about what CD's would be good enough to buy if piracy were not an option. And if they wouldn't have bought the CD under normal circumstances, did the RIAA really lose a sale?

This brings me to my final point, piracy of anything, while I don't condone, can also help all industries I think, and here's how. Say that same person just pirated that CD and ended up having a little party. During that party, he/she plays that CD. Other people then start liking the CD as well and want to know what band it is...what just happened? I don't know about you, but I call that advertising. Other party guests who may never have heard of the band, the CD, or the song, have now heard it and may very well start to like it, enough to go out and buy the CD. So while the RIAA "lost" 1 sale, it may have gained several more. Now yes, these guests could just ask for a burned copy of it, but it still gets the band's name out there which I'm sure is what the RIAA wants, even though they will probably never admit to it.

And YouTube fits this perfectly, especially for someone like me who rarely even watches TV. Clips from TV shows, music videos, movie trailers, even if not uploaded officially, still get the content out there for people to see and essentially advertising for the copyright holder. Obviously if a full TV show episode or movie is uploaded, that would cross the line, but a 30 second clip, or a trailer for a movie? give me a break. It may be your [Viacom's] copyright, but it still gives you publicity. Oh yeah...and this whole suing Google/YouTube...Well Viacom, its also gives you a lot of publicity...only its not the good kind of publicity, its the bad kind, the kind that will make me and I'm sure many others despise you and avoid you when possible, and maybe even when not possible.

In the meantime, these two videos go back a little ways, back during the writer's strike, but they're a good way to leave off...

Tags: google, youtube, viacom, copyrights

Google has just announced that it has integrated AIM into GMAIL. What does this mean? It means that from GMAIL, you can access and talk to your contacts on AIM from the side chat menu. This is pretty big news as it is I believe that first real integration between the IM companies (AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, & Google). I mean there are the multiple protocol clients like Adium, Trillian, Pidgin, & even the web clients like Meebo.com, but never done before by the service company. I tried it out, and it runs just like Google Talk. With everything that Google has done to GMAIL lately, I'd be curious to see where else they go.

UPDATE: I also just happened to notice that the chat feature in GMAIL now works on Safari, which is great because Safari is my primary browser on my Mac and once the final version is released for Windows, it may very well become my primary brower there too.

Google Integrates AIM into GMAIL [macworld.com]

Tags: google, gmail, aim, links, news

Tags: google, gmail, tech, email