Posted on 07/03/2008 8:27:18 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.
Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".
The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.
While the legal battle between the two firms is being contested in the US, it is thought the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits everywhere.
Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, has alleged that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement.
Legal action
When it initiated legal action in March 2007 the firm said it had identified about 160,000 unauthorised clips of its programmes on the website, which had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.
Following the launch of its billion-dollar lawsuit, YouTube introduced filtering tools in an effort to prevent copyright materials from appearing on the site.
The US court declined Viacom's request that Google be forced to hand over the source code of YouTube, saying it was a "trade secret" that should not be disclosed.
But it said privacy concerns expressed by Google about handing over the log were "speculative".
The ruling will see the viewing habits of millions of YouTube users given to Viacom, totalling more than 12 terabytes of data.
Viacom said it wanted the data to "compare the attractiveness of allegedly infringing video with that of non-infringing videos."
'Erroneous ruling'
The EFF said: "The Court's erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube.
"We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users."
The body said the ruling was also potentially unlawful because the log data did contain personally identifiable data.
The court also ruled that Google disclose to Viacom the details of all videos that have been removed from the site for any reason.
What about YouTube deleting pro-life videos at the behest of abortionists?
This is so f**king ridiculous.
Youtube is the ONLY source of a lot of the stuff that people watch!
I love when companies scream “copyright infringement” on something that YOU CAN NO LONGER BUY! Like old sitcoms and stuff.
Yep. Expect that 3 AM knock in the not-distant-enough future.
By users, do they mean gmail user ID, or actually any anonymous user by IP address? If so, this information could be also be used by other inquirers to track those who have viewed political videos as well, or left comments at sites, viewed “rumors” in the news, etc. etc...
They’re already doing this for China, evidently.
got tinfoil?
Our Founders would not recognize America as is exists today. The Bill of Rights is invalidated if a “US Court” says so.
Viacom owns CBS and is deeply connected to the Clintons via the money chain...
Big Brother is watching us.
First they came for the....
When it happens to FreeRepublic, they'll want to know the ip address of every user who has ever clicked on a FreeRepublic link, how long he or she viewed it before clicking on another FR link, and (if he was a registered user) every comment he ever made on FR (including all the FreepMail he exchanged with other Freepers).
This will be a very, very bad precedent if it stands (I just wish I knew what those odds were).
What does that have to do with this story?
You Tube is so 2007, it is old hat.
This was a stupid decision. I wonder if the judge in that case will now try to get my IP and address from this post...
How does "even money" grab you?
This judge must be taken down, tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail ~ and as quickly as possible as that can be arranged.
I think I will file an appeal ~
Kinda low. :-(
Another violation of the 4th Amendment (RIP).
The Jihad on Drugs takes another scalp.
I dont really go to youtube much, but I do catch things occasionally from within sites that have embedded things.
I have an account there, why I don’t know, but they can kiss my ass... raiding a home over some kind of watching of a video that MIGHT be “copyright infringement” will get people killed, very quickly.
Roger that.
What I’m confused about here is that the viewer does not download the file, like they would an MPG via file sharing. I know there’s third party aps. that allow it, but as a rule, the clips are streamed. There’s no transfer of data. So, any “infringement” rests on the original uploader, and YouTube, not the file viewer.
So why would they want a “viewer log”.
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