Calling Robert Bork
October 13, 2011
| 4:34 PM
Three decades after Congress passed a law to protect the privacy of Americans' video rental history, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday that would not only loosen the bill's restrictions but also help Netflix in its Facebook integration effort.
The bill, H.R. 2471, would amend the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act, which was passed after failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental history was leaked to a newspaper. The law currently bars disclosure of a user's video rental records without written permission. The proposed update, sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., would allow consumers to give their consent to the sharing of their video rental records only once instead of each time it is shared.
Goodlatte said the measure is aimed at updating the law to reflect the new ways people watch videos and share information about movies and programs they like and dislike. "It is narrowly crafted to preserve the VPPA's protections for consumers' privacy while modernizing the law to empower consumers to do more with their video consumption preferences, including sharing names of new or favorite TV shows or movies on social media in a simple way," Goodlatte said when the bill was introduced in July.
The bill would help Netflix in particular and its effort to allow its users to connect their Netflix accounts to Facebook so they can share with their Facebook friends what they are watching on the video service.
When it announced it was launching the service in September, Netflix said it was only rolling it out in Canada and Latin America because the 1988 video privacy law barred it from introducing the service in the United States. Netflix said it was hoping Congress would fix the problem. "The good news, however, is that some forward-thinking members of Congress have introduced legislation, H.R. 2471, that would allow you to make this choice," Michael Drobac, Netflix's director of government relations wrote in a blog post.
Coincidentally, two of Drobac's three campaign contributions this year went to Goodlatte and one of the bill's original cosponsors, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., each of whom got $1,000 from Netflix' top Washington representative.
Goodlatte's spokeswoman said that the bill is not necessarily aimed at helping Netflix. "It benefits any consumer who wishes to share their movie watching experiences with those who are part of their online social network," she said in an e-mail response. "While the Netflix/Facebook integration is the one that is often mentioned because it has already occurred in Canada and Latin America, this legislation will open the doors to numerous video retailers and social networking websites."
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