A little late on this one...

By now you've doubtless heard that due to a ruling in a US court YouTube must hand over an astonishing amount of data about every video ever viewed on its site to Viacom. I seen people say this is wrong for many reasons but the more I think about it the one that is most insidious is the ruling is retroactive.

Perhaps we were gullible and naive to ever treat anywhere on the web as a lawless new frontier. But people have - if we're honest I'm sure we all have to some degree. And I think web-development has benefited from that. Viacom argue they haven't - and, rightly or wrongly, a judge agrees with them.

However, I can't help feeling there's an aspect of this ruling that's like erecting fences and 'We Hang Trespassers' signs after a caravan of honest prospectors have trundled across an unmarked boundary, only to find themselves the centre of a Salem-style witch-hunt. They say 'innovate or die' but perhaps if you don't fancy either of those options you just need to a bigger gun and go hunting!

If they're that stupid...!

'Youngsters Unaware Of Web Vetting' shouts the headline, as if pronouncing some great technological injustice. The reality? It's merely describing a general lapse in common sense. Alongside the myth that the web is anonymous lives the lie that you can delete things! Once published you have commited your thoughts and actions - in word, photo or video - to the collective consciousness, probably for the rest of earth's existence.

This isn't a problem if you've nothing to be ashamed of, but who's really in that position? Sky's article talks of the potential issues this raises for university or job applicants. Those mundane examples have nothing of the allure of 'seeing' Obama's checkered drug history or the moment when Bill did not inhale! As the implications of greater transparency grip society we have to choose: judge as we would not like to be judge or reassess our appeciation of grace, mercy and forgiveness.