First they came for the YouTubers...

OH MY GOD! This is horrible... this is pure attack on human rights, this isn't just America this is the world. We're losing any privacy we have on there. No judge should be allowed to rule this. That's why we choose to have a screen name. To remain private. We post videos, and comment. But this isn't about Viacom it's about controlling the net. *screams expletives!*

By Ryan Singel

Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos, which could be used to increase Google's liability if it is found guilty of contributory infringement.

Viacom filed suit against Google in March 2007, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for allowing users to upload clips of Viacom's copyright material. Google argues that the law provides a safe harbor for online services so long as they comply with copyright takedown requests.

More here

We can't allow this. We simply can't allow a world wide decision like this to be made by one little judge who caves into Viacom a dead company basically. Viacom are demanding too much and getting too greedy this is complete and utter infridgement of human rights!

I think it's impossible for them to hand over ALL of that information - it's just too much. There are millions and millions of videos on youtube. Viacom are fighting a losing battle.

Good thing I used a fake name on my account

.

It would just apply to users though, correct? Not people who just watched something on there once? Just curious..

But, I agree. It's an invasion of privacy. Why would any stupid judge agree to that?! I mean, seriously! Who knows what could happen to that information?! That's horrible! And it's a site that people trusted! Imagine if someone demanded of Nate to hand over all our account info. how terrible would that be?

I don't like this...But then again, there are a lot of users. How can they hand over all the millions of people and shift through them? It's ludicracy for them to think that they would win this battle. But, that's my oppinion.

Jamie

there are too many, they are fighting a losing battle. but its scary to think how little privacy we all have, but then again surely it does help in a positive way, helping to catch pedophiles and so on? all this spying? just a thought.

New comment:

Wait...so they want to prove that copyright infringing amterial is more popular than original videos? Why on earth would that require every single youtube user's name and IP adress? Couldn't they just compare views?

thunder_dude7 wrote:New comment:

Wait...so they want to prove that copyright infringing amterial is more popular than original videos? Why on earth would that require every single youtube user's name and IP adress? Couldn't they just compare views?

For once Thunder, you and me are in agreement :/. IP's aren't needed to find this.

Wait...so they want to prove that copyright infringing amterial is more popular than original videos? Why on earth would that require every single youtube user's name and IP adress? Couldn't they just compare views?

Not only do they want to prove that copyright material is more popular, they want to find it and remove it from the site. To do this, you would need to see the members who viewed said copyright material to find it, and find the users who posted it. I'm not sure if a penalty (such as account removal) will be put in place for posting copyrighted material, as this would require some work through Google/YouTube.

Maybe I'm just not big on "OMG they're taking away my identity!" scandals, but I don't really care at all.

I know people would stand up for the writer's who weren't getting their pay for online content and DVD distributions, or bands who are being cheated through P2P music sharing systems, so why is this any different? The producers, companies, actors, etc are not getting their pay and are illegally having their work put on the internet. It's a big deal these days - like Napster big.

I don't blame everyone for overreacting or being angry about this; this story has been badly handled by those who picked it up. Yet, the mainstream media, which would be expected to do some sort of "expert" analysis, never did pick it up.

What many bloggers think is that this court decision gives Viacom unlimited access to your information on Youtube. That isn't true.

This is a court order compelling Google to hand over some user information for the purposes of discovery. The Judge ruled that Viacom needed access to this information in order to prove whether or not Youtube is rife with piracy. Viacom will need to destroy this information after it is done with it, and cannot use it for any other purpose besides showing that piracy is a problem on Youtube. If it uses it for any other purpose, serious fines and jail time could be imposed.

So it's really not as bad as it first appears (don't trust everything you read on the Internet), and it's definitely not an infringement on human rights. The information is being used for the purposes of discovery only.

Plus, many forget the appeals system. Google can, if it chooses, to appeal this court order to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

In any case, I disagree with the Judge as well, but unfortunately, Google shot itself in the foot on this one. The company said that IP addresses and login IDs are not personally identifiable information. So the Judge basically asked, "Alright, so if you're acknowledging there is no privacy concern here, then why should I not allow Viacom to have access to it?" to which Google had no answer.

But, as the information can be used for purposes of discovery only and cannot be used for anything besides proving piracy is rife, it's not as bad as some are making it out to be. The information is being used just for one ongoing court case between Viacom and Google.

Nate, you just made a friend of mine feel a lot better. He's in Italics.

Thanks a lot man, that is so a weight off of my shoulders. I'm glad someone does their research.

The world is a complicated place.

Nate: Admin extraordinaire and aspiring law student!

Pure awesomeness.

i think that this ruling is half fair. they should not give ips and profile info, but make viacom find its own content (like Dattebayo and many others had to) and report it

Not fair. I don't my IP number plastered for everyone to see. CORRUPTION! Is it that for people who sign up or poeple who just watch the videos?

it already is. if i wanted to know your ip, its very easy. and, nate has access to all our ips

isnt it fun using ips on google maps?