Media News - Thursday, July 03, 2008

Judge orders YouTube to give all user histories to Viacom

Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday. Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement. Viacom filed suit against Google in March 2007, seeking more than USD 1bn in damages for allowing users to upload clips of Viacom's copyright material. Google argues that the law provides a safe harbor for online services so long as they comply with copyright takedown requests. Although Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users' privacy, the judge's ruling described that argument as 'speculative' and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives. The judge also turned Google's own defense of its data retention policies - that IP addresses of computers aren't personally revealing in and of themselves, against it to justify the log dump. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already reacted, calling the order a violation of the Video Privacy Protection act that 'threatens to expose deeply private information.' The order also requires Google to turn over copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason. Viacom also requested YouTube's source code, the code for identifying repeat copyright infringement uploads, copies of all videos marked private, and Google's advertising database schema. Those requests were denied in whole, except that Google will have to turn over data about how often each private video has been watched and by how many persons. (Wired.com)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

Niger Government’s Closure of Press House condemned

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Wednesday condemned the Niger government's closure of its Press House over accusations of mismanagement and colluding with 'groups with secret plans.' On July 1, the Niger Minister of Communication Mohamed Ben Omar published a press release announcing the closure until further notice of the press house located in Niamey, the capital city. The statement said that the decision arose from mismanagement of the institution and the fact that the 'press house is more and more the hostage of certain groups with secret plan.' In his statement the Minister made no mention of interference by French or American donors but did cite them when he gathered media leaders in his office the day before. In 2007 the government gave a building to the Press House, which is an independent association run by a dozen media associations. The institution's 'management is not linked to the government nor the Communication Minister,' the Press House members said in a joint statement. The statement also said that there is a regular briefing to the Board, the General Assembly and the Executive Committee of the House and no mismanagement has been noticed. The media associations also said that the grants received from foreign partners as well as from the government do not make them hostage of any group. They said the Press House is not dissolved and will continue its activities despite the seizure of the building. (International Federation of Journalists via African Press Organisation)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

British journalist submits to waterboarding

British-American writer Christopher Hitchens voluntarily submitted to waterboarding and concluded that the controversial interrogation technique used by the CIA is torture, he said in a magazine article published Wednesday. Hitchens said in the Vanity Fair article that he contacted members of the US special forces who train soldiers in how to resist torture in order to experience waterboarding, the simulated drowning technique which the Central Intelligence Agency in February acknowledged it used on three top terror suspects. The journalist and author described how - at the request of his editors - he ventured to an unnamed rural location in the southeastern US state of North Carolina where agents put a hood over his head, bound his feet, cuffed his hands to a belt, and strapped him to a wooden board positioned with his head lower than his heart. The agents then draped a towel over his face and began pouring water onto it for several seconds before Hitchens signaled them to stop. 'Believe me, it's torture,' read Hitchens' headline on the Vanity Fair website. Photographs and video of Hitchens' experience and a subsequent interview with the writer were posted on the magazine's website. Hitchens, who was an ardent supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, concluded his article stating his opposition to the use of waterboarding by the United States. (AFP)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

Romania: 50 percent of news must be positive, says law proposal

Last week, the Romanian Senate unanimously voted a law proposal forcing media to distribute 50 percent of positive news. According to its instigators, the law will help to fight against 'the extraordinary harms of negative news and their irreversible effects on health and people's lives.' The Senate wishes that TV and radio news programs feature as much 'negative' as 'positive' news. The Romanian's National Council for Audiovisual broadcasting is to validate the law - under which it will have the responsibility to decide what constitutes good or bad news. But the Council swiftly criticized the law. 'News is news, it is neither positive nor negative, it simply reflects reality,' said the Council's president, Rasvan Popescu. Press freedom organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have also criticized the proposal, comparing it to similar laws in authoritarian regimes such as North Korea. (Le Monde via Editors Weblog)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

Axel Springer interested in Polish newspaper group

German media group Axel Springer has contacted the Polish treasury about buying its 49-percent stake in Presspublica, which publishes Poland's number three non-tabloid daily, a company spokesman said on Thursday. Poland holds 49 percent of Presspublica through PW Rzeczpospolita. The remaining stake is held by London-listed European newspaper group Mecom, which declined to comment. The German group publishes Poland's top tabloid newspaper, Fakt, but its other newspaper, Dziennik, has struggled in its battle with Gazeta Wyborcza, published by Agora AGOD.WA. Reuters reported in March that Springer and Mecom had also shown some interest in Agora. Poland's centre-right government and Mecom have been at odds over the direction for Presspublica, which publishes Rzeczpospolita daily, along with business newspaper Parkiet. Rzeczpospolita newspaper has struggled financially in recent years, but has regained some ground in recent months as circulation of other dailies dropped. (Reuters)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

Sri Lanka media demand security

Hundreds of journalists have protested outside the residence of Sri Lanka's president, demanding an end to a wave of attacks on the media. The demonstrators called on Mahinda Rajapaksa's government to end what they said was a 'culture of impunity'. At least 12 journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka since August 2005. Campaigners for press freedom say Sri Lanka is fast becoming one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work in the world. Wednesday's protest comes two days after a reporter and a British diplomat were attacked in the capital, Colombo. Last month, the defence ministry launched a bitter attack on journalists, accusing them of irresponsible media analysis of the war with Tamil Tiger rebels. (BBC News)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992-2007 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net