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It passed the House, the Senate, and just before the new year, the President signed it into law. In a significant shift in video privacy - online video rental companies can now share information about the movies you rent or buy. As you might expect, things are about to get more social.According to the new law, companies have to ask only once. You can opt out, but if you don't, say goodbye to the rights to your video data for two full years. As per the change, Netflix will introduce new social features that basically link users' Netflix and Facebook accounts and share their viewing history with friends. Netflix was previously unable to do this in the U.S. by the 25-year-old Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which banned the sharing of personal data for anything but law enforcement purposes (even now, Hulu remains in court for previously sharing viewers' info)......Another potential problem stemming from the law, Reitman said, is whether video companies will use that information as a commodity and sell it. "Once data is combined with our social media profiles, it can be part of the data used by the online advertising industry for advertising purposes and we'll be forced to rely on the often confusing privacy settings on social networks to protect our video watching history."......But the underlying issue is that this new law creates a system where the public could easily end up sharing personal data without their informed consent.
Depends on how long the first run is and what other licensing restrictions may apply. Rule of thumb week or two to one month max. However certain films like ET were not granted and publishing rights until years after release in theaters and far as I know that also goes for certain Disney films as well. The upside to Netflix is you can have up to 5 or 6 guests that can sign on at the same time from the same account. (that's how I use it most of the time) The downside is that some of the material has to be sent in the mail on an exchange basis so you can't always "instant Q" every video. The quality of course depends on the source material and as mentioned by another includes a lot of older stuff done in 4x3, but for the most part looks pretty sharp on a 42" screen...way better then any of the 700 MEG movies or videos downloaded here on WinMx but maybe a shade grainier then a HD DVD.
President Obama signed Netflix-backed legislation today that makes it easier for people to share their video-viewing habits online.With his signature on H.R. 6671, Obama approved an amendment to the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act that allows video rental companies to obtain customer consent to share information about their viewing preferences on social networks such as Facebook. The law was enacted after a weekly newspaper printed the video rental history of Judge Robert H. Bork during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.The House bill is similar to a proposal approved last November by the Senate Judiciary Committee, minus language inserted by Sen. Patrick Leahy that would have required police to obtain search warrants before accessing files stored in the cloud, including e-mail. However, Leahy later withdrew the controversial proposal.Netflix, which had argued that the 25-year-old law was outdated and due for an overhaul, has said it plans to introduce social features for subscribers this year, although a Netflix representative told CNET that it was too early to discuss specifics. Netflix users outside the United States already have the option to link their accounts with Facebook, allowing them frictionless sharing of their video viewing preferences with other member of their online social network.
Just what I always wanted to know...What videos Toady is watchin' this week...Not
