"Youtube to hand over all user histories and IP addresses!"

**Ghos7Soldier** · 07-04-2008, 12:55 AM

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...orders-yo.html

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom

By Ryan Singel Email July 02, 2008 | 7:16:54 PMCategories: Copyrights and Patents

Quote:

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.

Although Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users' privacy, the judge's ruling (.pdf) described that argument as "speculative" and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives.

The judge also turned Google's own defense of its data retention policies -- that IP addresses of computers aren't personally revealing in and of themselves, against it to justify the log dump.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already reacted, calling the order a violation of the Video Privacy Protection act that "threatens to expose deeply private information."

The order also requires Google to turn over copies of all videos that it has taken down for any reason.

Viacom also requested YouTube's source code, the code for identifying repeat copyright infringement uploads, copies of all videos marked private, and Google's advertising database schema.

Those requests were denied in whole, except that Google will have to turn over data about how often each private video has been watched and by how many persons.

My opinion...
LOAD OF BULLSHIT.

I don't want my privacy turned over to someone else because they are complaining...

Got this from another forum.

**IcHiNaRu** · 07-04-2008, 01:00 AM

OMG Is it only for Viacom stuff though? And I dont want my info to go to someone I dont know XD But I didnt put anything important but I still think that they cant take everything.

**Kaiizu** · 07-04-2008, 01:01 AM

This has been a long standing problem and Megavideo had the same problem but with another company hence why most / all anime from megavideo gets taken down fast...

**Ghos7Soldier** · 07-04-2008, 01:02 AM

Yeah, they said it's been going on since last year..

Just until recently is when this happened.

**Poparteeb** · 07-04-2008, 01:04 AM

This is BS

we live in a free country, once something like free expression is taken away, what are we left with.

google should be appealing.

**Brandonel1** · 07-04-2008, 01:14 AM

thats jacked up viacom need to stop whining and needs to at least stop asking for ip addresses

**Kaiizu** · 07-04-2008, 01:32 AM

Its easy to find out IPs fast enough but blatently asking for them.. its like saying now we know you watching illegal shit you're in trouble..
But nothing we can do at this stage.

**Ya-chan** · 07-04-2008, 01:36 AM

That's just pretty damn stupid. I don't want other's to know what videos i've watched or uploaded (reason xP *blush*)
Btw we've uploaded, watched and downloaded many other copyrighted material. Why react now? XD

**Kaiizu** · 07-04-2008, 01:38 AM

Cause now Google is worth more than a 2nd class country...

**Gojyo** · 07-04-2008, 01:39 AM

I must admit this does have me a bit concerned. I hope this case doesn't set a precedent for other lawsuits of this nature against other streaming sites.

**Benawolnow** · 07-04-2008, 03:38 AM

Wow sueing for 1billion, most likely they just wanted to sue a big company. These things happen all the time sadly =[

**Silverstone** · 07-04-2008, 04:38 AM

Quote:

infringing material is more popular than user-created videos

Well maybe is 99% of things weren't copyrighted solely for the purpose of the mother company reaping all the profits...

**Watari** · 07-04-2008, 05:38 AM

This is an unfortunate situation. I don't see how it is necessary to obtain the personal information of Youtube's users in order to prove that much or most of the content on Youtube is copyrighted material. This sounds like a faggy little witch hunt to me.

**Benawolnow** · 07-05-2008, 05:20 AM

Well I guess some tech geek person who gathers all this data will do something and set up a graph that will show the "judge" who probably isn't a pro at computers and technology and stuff *Not that I would know but just a guess* would understand it all.

**TakKi** · 07-05-2008, 06:36 AM

I have a terabyte HD too. Not four, but still. Quite useful. Er, on subject, I think it's funny. Allwell. I could care less if they win/lose. I doubt it'll make much of a difference to Google in anycase. (unless other companies get inspired, lmfao..)