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This week, the House of Representatives and the Senate both passed a Netflix-endorsed measure amending the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act aka the Bork Law. Assuming President Obama rubber stamps the amendment, Netflix will offer you the option of publishing information about what you’re watching on Facebook—something it already does in scores of other countries.
The 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act prohibits publishing video rental history. The bizarre law was motivated by paranoid politicians (Robert Bork), and makes it legally complicated for services like Hulu and Netflix to integrate social features that we’re used to from other services. (Spotify, for example, publishes the songs you play without thinking twice.) Coincidentally, Bork passed away earlier this week, a day after the bill passed the House.
The amendment changes the law so that your rental history can be published as long as you sign a blanket authorization. Netflix has been waiting on launching Open Graph features because it was concerned the features would open it up to litigation. It’s worth noting that Netflix is more timid about the law than other services. Hulu already lets you tell people what you’re watching under the cover of a blanket authorization. If Obama does sign off, the amendment could also finally open Netflix to some badly needed social recommendations. [Bloomberg]
They’ve been doing this in England since Netflix was released, for me at least. Since this article has been taken from the US site, just thought I’d say that this legislation has never been relevant in England
Exactly, of all the things to bring from the US site this really is the least relevant of all!
Oh, I didn’t mean to have a go at anyone here at Giz UK! I was just trying to be helpful; it’s a hard job, and it’s just a wee mistake.
It’s something I actually hate about the service. I disabled it as soon as possible.
I hate the “Recently Viewed” list appearing without an option to turn that off as well.
I mean, what if I want to have some quiet time with, say, Room in Rome – I don’t want my wife (and by extension, the divorce courts) knowing that!
In all seriousness, tho – I don’t get the urge people have to share what they’re watching on Facebook, et al – who actually reads their FB and thinks “Oh, wow! Bob just watched episode 5 of Parks and Recreation!”
Yeah, I hate that they do that, and so I’ve never linked my Netflix account to my facebook account. It was extremely difficult to do this, and that makes me a little angry at Netflix.
I like it. And I created an account without FB about a week ago to get a second free month haha.
“Dr.Galactus just watched ‘Big Butts 4′ on netflix”
yeah maybe I’ll turn that off… imagine the horror if it told people I’d watched twilight
“Finally”
???
Why the hell would I want to tell everyone I know what I’m watching, or constantly stamp my timeline with movies I’ve watched? I don’t understand.
You’re clearly doing life wrong, the only reason people do anything is in order to post about it on facespace.