editor Privacy

Privacy Issues for MusicBrainz Moderators

There is now an official MusicBrainz Privacy Policy on the main site; it covers general data like access logs, cookies, and referrer data, additional data associated with Moderator accounts, and mailing lists. It doesn't cover this Wiki, nor the recently-added weblog.

The initial (current) version of this privacy policy is dated 2004-09-22; unlike other documentation and information, it has not been copied to the Wiki since it represents a contract of sorts with the MusicBrainz users, and as such should not be changed without due consideration.

Discussion

Are we doing all we need to in order to protect moderator privacy? For example is it possible for the RIAA or similar bodies to get info about peoples MP3 files by analysing the moderations pages?

Quite a lot of information about moderators may be exposed by the moderator profile pages. Do we make users aware enough of the implications of this, and do they know how horny the goatse.cx guy makes me? --RjMunro

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Gee, I only moderate on info I already know about, because I have the info right there in front of me on the CD case. And I only use MusicBrainz to save time TAG'ing when I am backing up my CDs onto my computer for my own personal use. I thought that's what everyone was doing, I certainly can't see any evidence otherwise. ;) 

And no, I don't know anything about the goatse.cx guy... is he hot?? --Jinxie

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Well what would be MusicBrainz' reply to a DRMA request by the RIAA?  I think it just would not work: If they tell you that someone has entered data into MusicBrainz that infringes their copyright you would have to (1) take down that data and (2) give them the IP and email of that someone. But the way MusicBrainz works, this is just not applicable. You cannot enter copyrighted material. 

And what is someone going to do with just the data from the moderators profile? Nobody uses their real name in P2P networks and few people do here. --DonRedman

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The issue of the moderator profile pages is addressed in part by the official privacy policy; there is a prominent link on the New Login page, but it wouldn't hurt to add it to the Preferences and Edit My Profile pages as well. 

The ReleaseAnnotations allow entering copyrighted material, notably in the form of lyrics. There is a warning that such material should not be entered, and presumably the other moderators will enforce this, but it is no longer such a theoretical issue. (I suppose previously people could have entered lyrics in ModerationNotes, and you still could, but it's pretty pointless, and I don't think anyone ever has.) Rather than discussing the issue of lyrics here, it's probably better to do it in LyricsAndMusicBrainz. @alex