Believe it or not there is actually a bill from the 1980’s that has prohibited Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and other online streaming company’s from sharing your movie titles inside of a Facebook wall post, through Twitter and on other social platforms. Known as the Video Protection Act the bill was implemented as rental customers feared their adult video rentals at a time before mass internet adoption, could be made public.
The House of Representatives have now approved a bill that would make it easier to share the titles for non-adult related content, overturning a large portion of the wording in the Video Privacy Act.
Should the bill be fully overturned Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other online providers will finally be able to embed recently watched video titles via Facebook’s Open Graph and through other protocols.
In a statement regarding the House of Rep decision Netflix declared:
“We are pleased the house has moved to modernize the VPPA, giving consumers more freedom to share with friends when they want. We look forward to swift action in the Senate.”
It should be noted that some company’s such as Hulu have decided to ignore the VPA from the start. For example Hulu uses the Facebook Open Graph to allow users to opt-in to Social Sharing, a feature that can be turned off easily and at any time.
The Senate is likely to vote on the passing of the bill in a few weeks.
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