Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which bought the social media sharing site Twango for a reported $100 million last year, is now trying to retroactively scrub it clean of what it considers copyrighted content that non-owners have uploaded. Which of course it has the right to do, only I would consider its approach a bit heavy-handed. Here’s what the note it sent out to its registered users (including me) said:
“We respect the copyrights of amateurs and professionals that post content on the service. One way we can continue to keep the community focused on real media from real people is to make sure copyrighted material is not uploaded without the consent of the owner. Over the next few days we will be implementing an automated system which will identify and remove copyrighted commercial content. You may notice some existing content will no longer be available. Accounts affected will receive an explanatory note in their inbox. This automated system will remain in place to identify copyrighted media and notify members if their uploads are affected. This process will take place in parallel to the upload to ensure upload speeds will not be impacted.”
Meaning, it does not explain what system and criterion it is using to clean up the uploaded material, plus it doesn’t give us, the users, any choice and say in what media stays in our accounts and what doesn’t. The site also doesn’t have any other notification on this, and if you miss the e-mail, too bad. The only other place it has posted the same notice is on the company blog, which of course very few users probably read with any regularity.
This is definitely big step take by any social netwoking website and i hope to see other social netoworking sites to follow nokia path and remove all copyright material.
See today Youtube is battling with viecome for Copyright related issue and this is going to end with compromised user privacy