Today in Parliament

[Richard Clayton]

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In article <C6F343320DAC194BA010FD66AD49362339160E@home.usermgmt.local>,
David Biggins <David_Biggins@usermgmt.com> writes

>Richard Clayton wrote
>
>> I suppose someone might think there was value in determining which
>> subscribers had resolved www.binladen.me over the past year... but it
>> doesn't sound very proportionate to me (or likely to be useful).
>
>Personally I would agree with you.
>
>But this perhaps bears comparison with a court instructing

The comparison is between self-authorisation by the Law Enforcement as
to whether an action is necessary and proportionate, and a court
deciding after an adversarial hearing whether an action is necessary for
justice to be done in a civil case....

... not a very close comparison in my view :(

> Google to
>hand over the log details of all the people who have viewed YouTube
>videos - regardless of whether or not such videos were actually
>copyright of the plaintiff.

That was the whole point, the plaintiffs are seeking to show that
copyright material is more popular than the random bits of webcam
footage...  because if so, then the defendant's entire business (selling
ad space!) clearly depends on the "piracy"; which would go directly to
the issue of damages.

Now why the court said it had to be all the records (and didn't
originally insist upon anonymisation) is probably something best
addressed to the judge's fourth grade maths teacher :(

- -- 
richard                                              Richard Clayton

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.         Benjamin Franklin

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