Quote:
Originally Posted by Phormic Acid
Yes, that’s one mightily strange ruling. Although, one often reads of US District Courts coming out with similar strangeness. It’s like asking to see everyone’s shopping habits, so you can compare the attractiveness of bought products against what gets shoplifted.
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Remember it isn't all bad news. The other side of the coin on this item is a copyright issue which actually can be worked to our advantage. I wonder what BT's view is on whether there is copyright abuse when material gets copied from one part of the internet (like BBC iPlayer) and used elsewhere? After all some ISP's have been pretty big on copyright, although they appear to swing from side to side according to more sinister agendas.
It's a bit like the ISPA/DPI tomfoolery. If the authorities want the ISP's to be legally responsible for filesharing on their networks then the ISPA says - "DPI? can't be done - it's like the Royal Mail opening all the envelolpes - we could never manage it, and anyway it's illegal and we couldn't possibly do anything illegal"
If the ISP's then discover that they can make a shedload of money out of DPI, then suddenly DPI CAN be done, and Emma Sanderson is arguing that it isn't at ALL like opening the envelopes and of course it's legal because she says so and she's sought, er, obtained legal advice. And what do the ISPA do? Zilch. Suddenly gone three brass monkeys.
Likewise copyright. With respect to YouTube I am sure BT would say - you musn't copy videos to YouTube, (or your ISP webspace) it's a breach of copyright and we will have to close your account if you do it.
But when it comes to Webwise, then suddenly anything on the internet that is publicly available is ripe for commercial exploitation, and - you guessed it - it's legal, because Emma says so, and she's sought, er, obtained, legal advice.
According to Emma Sanderson there can't BE any copyright infringement going on.
The whole ISP position is farcical and changes every time the (commercial) wind blows.
And who cares which way the
legal weathervane is pointing? They are above the law, they are an international blue chip company.