Google Ordered to Give User Data to Viacom
Thursday July 3, 2008
Ever watched a YouTube video of the Daily Show or other copyrighted Viacom material? Worse yet, have you ever uploaded something you shouldn't have? Viacom may soon find out your YouTube user ID and your IP address. A federal judge has ordered Google to turn their logs over to Viacom as part of Viacom's copyright infringement lawsuit against Google.
This has prompted a lot of concern that Viacom is on a fishing expedition to sue individual users for watching copyrighted videos. CNET points out that there are a few protections in place to prevent Viacom from using the data to target individual users, and Google is asking to anonymize the logs before handing them over.
Viacom also asked for source code and other YouTube trade secrets, but those requests were denied.
Comments
well google and you tube you wanted to track user activity now your going to pay for it and we the costumer that you did this to have no say. google use urchin to track user well your urchin has comeback to bite you good.maybe these companies will get the message that my info is not for them to collect and store.All i know is i get sued google gets sued by me for collecting my data with out my consent,and for involing me in a litigation suite i had no right being in.
I imagine a lot of people would sue Google if Viacom sued them for viewing a YouTube video. Fortunately, it looks like Google will anonymize the data before they hand it over.
Just another chapter in the saga of BIG business taking over the Internet.Getting information and/or just plain surfing used to be a joy,something to occupy one’s mind.Today,more and more,it just isn’t worth all the hassles.Phooey.
Well, If yahoos wouldn’t put copy protected material up at you tube, there would not be a lawsuit. Shades of early Napster and file sharing ripped music. Understand people, you can’t steal someone’s property -intellectual, written, filmed or whatever - and get away with it!