Loss of Privacy

Earlier today, Saudi Arabia blocked Facebook over moral concerns.

An official with Saudi Arabia’s communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn’t conform with the kingdom’s conservative values.

The official says Saudi’s Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked the site Saturday and an error message shows up when Internet users try to access it.

He says Facebook’s content had “crossed a line” with the kingdom’s conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure.

Although the ban was temporary, it still raises concerns that anyone who questions the government or runs a website that the Saudi regime decides isn’t in line with their conservative, Islamic ideals and values, risks having their sites blocked.
Saudi Arabia is not the only country that regularly blocks popular websites. Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey have all recently been in the news for similar actions.

In the past, Saudi Arabia has also blocked YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, and the Arabic version of Travian.

The Hitler parody video clips taken from the movie Der Untergang (Downfall) have been on the internet for several years now.  Constantin Film has ordered that YouTube take down all the videos made, claiming they are trying to protect their rights. This is the newest battle in the copyright wars.

Hitler loses his iphone is not on YouTube, but you can find it here.

Of particular note is that the producer of the movie enjoys all the clips himself and does not see a problem with the parody videos.

“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one,” says the director, on the phone from Vienna. “I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.” Some of Hirschbiegel’s favorites are the one where Hitler hears of Michael Jackson’s death, and one in which the Fuhrer can’t get Billy Elliot tickets

The video clip below is a rant about the DMCA itself, which was ordered to be taken down, but the creator of this clip has filed an appeal, claiming that it’s fair use.  So, for now, this video remains online.

Hitler, as “Downfall producer” orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Full details at http://ideas.4brad.com/hitler-tries-dmca-takedown – There are hundreds of parodies of this “Downfall” clip. The studio, Constantin Films, has ordered takedowns of some of them, and eventually even had this parody removed from YouTube. In this clip, Hitler is the producer, and his lawyers tell him why he can’t do a DMCA takedown and how the EFF could stop him. He desperately searches for other ways to protect the movie.

Made by Brad Templeton, an EFF board member (but releasing the video on his own.) This video educates about intellectual property issues and parodies the actions of the studio using the very clip they are censoring.

The reason you don’t need to freak out is that this linking is disabled by default.

If you select the “Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address” box, then they will link, otherwise, keep your stuff separate and don’t worry.

Often, I find a YouTube video informational and I embed it on this site as a way of getting information out to people without them having to click extra links to find the video.  Now, after winning in court against YouTube, ASCAP wants regular users to pay for embedded videos on their sites.

ASCAP licenses the performance rights for music, collecting royalties for its songwriter members when their songs are played in certain contexts.

Those contexts now include a YouTube video embedded on your blog or website, assuming your site is not “purely” non-commercial and is deemed large enough by ASCAP.

If, and when, this does happen, you will see thousands of websites simply not embedding videos on their websites.  The free publicity for the artists will end and ASCAP won’t see a dime from anyone.  All ASCAP has done is continue to piss off regular people and drive them further from their products.