[WEB SECURITY] [Off Topic] Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom

["Joe White" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I recognize that this is likely off-topic for the list but a healthy
sense of paranoia often times accompanies an "out of the box" security
mindset.  =)

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-orders-yo.html

A link to the court ruling is included in the article referenced above
and I encourage you to take a moment to read it if you have the time.

The way I see it, at the end of the day, web application security
professionals ultimately work to build confidence and a sense of both
trust and integrity for the end user experience.  Without confidence,
trust and integrity then the Internet as we know it falls away and we
are likely left without an outlet for our passion.

Many pieces of this court ruling troubled me and I wanted to share it
with the list in case others on the list had missed it.

If end users ever get to the point that they fear visiting public and
otherwise respected sites then that seems to do us all a disservice.
Does this not encourage the further development of a DarkNet that
shields end users from unforeseen liability and if so, does this not
also complicate efforts to secure and protect web applications by
security professionals?

Sure, maybe I am overreacting but in a world based upon precedents,
this one troubles me more than others.

As always, I'd be very curious to get other thoughts and opinions on this.

thanks,
joe

<<<>>>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join us on IRC: irc.freenode.net #webappsec

Have a question? Search The Web Security Mailing List Archives: 
http://www.webappsec.org/lists/websecurity/archive/

Subscribe via RSS: 
http://www.webappsec.org/rss/websecurity.rss [RSS Feed]

Join WASC on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83336/4B20E4374DBA