Google must turn over the records of videos watched on YouTube to Viacom, according to a ruling from the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Viacom’s $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit. The ruling Wednesday raises serious issues over privacy concerns.
That means detailed data on who’s watching what on the world’s biggest video-sharing site could be in Viacom’s hands.
According to the ruling, Google must provide YouTube user histories to Viacom, including the unique “login ID” of the user who watched a given video, the time the user started to watch the video and the Internet protocol address other devices connected to the Internet use to identify the user’s computer.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the ruling a threat to privacy. “The court’s erroneous ruling is a setback to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube,” the EFF wrote on its Web site. “We urge Viacom to back off this over-broad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.”
Google had argued that turning over this data would be a violation of user privacy, but the court rejected that idea.
In a statement reported on CNET, Google said: “We are pleased the court put some limits on discovery, including refusing to allow Viacom to access users’ private videos and our search technology. We are disappointed the court granted Viacom’s overreaching demand for viewing history. We are asking Viacom to respect users’ privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court’s order.”
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Comments (2)
I don't get why Viacom even needs this. If someone is uploading their product without their knowledge, that's one thing, but are the now going after those of us who just click on a link to watch it?
Because if that's the cast, I think a lot of those same people are the audience for Viacom's new pay channel and MTV networks and all the other Viacom stuff, and they will be pissed. Pissed off enough to boycott Viacom properties? It remains to be seen.
Posted by Joe Bua | July 3, 2008 2:05 PM
You miss the point.. Posting illegal video that one person watched is much different than posting illegal video that had high viewership. Once you prove the mass audience you enter a new legal field of play. Higher level of fines and penalties. It also means you have to depose a large numvber of viewers to prove viewership.
You have no right to privacy when your action is infringing on someone elses legal rights.
You tube should be forced to turn over the information and the users should be prepared to cooperate with Viacom.
Posted by TV Boy | July 7, 2008 10:46 AM