The Observer Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN0329430120080705 NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge's order to Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) sparked an outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of a legal showdown over video piracy. Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service and its deep-pocketed parent, Google. Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses. Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed. Representatives of both companies said they were looking to work out how to comply with the court order to share video data while ensuring personally identifiable information is secure. Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears, saying it had no interest in identifying individual users. "Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said. "Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ... will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner." Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightshayde Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Isn't this old news? It's not in the papers anymore. Avatar by Unoalexi! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiriyama Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Let me see if I got this right... Viacom are sueing because of copyrighted material users put onto youtube? Seriously, just get them to remove the content, it would be pretty hard for people to reveiw every video on youtube before making them public, hell it would take alot of staff probably... Denizen of Darkness| PSN= sworddude198 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluejayfan94 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Let me see if I got this right... Viacom are sueing because of copyrighted material users put onto youtube? Seriously, just get them to remove the content, it would be pretty hard for people to reveiw every video on youtube before making them public, hell it would take alot of staff probably... A Video gets uploaded on youtube every minute, yes. It would be hard. HomerSPC's Lets Plays : : Minecraft, Portal, Halo and more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiriyama Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Considering that quite alot of videos must be 1 minute+ They'd have to either have a [cabbage] load of people, or get well behind on videos, possibly never catching up to a present. Denizen of Darkness| PSN= sworddude198 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giordano Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 "Owner of MTV" Stopped reading right there. :lol: There are a lot worse places to get pirated stuff. "The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InkofDeath Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 You guys need to read the actual article: [hide=Read of the Article]Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses. Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed. Representatives of both companies said they were looking to work out how to comply with the court order to share video data while ensuring personally identifiable information is secure. Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears, saying it had no interest in identifying individual users. "Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said. "Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ... will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner."[/hide] They are breaking so many laws there, do not know how a Judge was convinced to order Google to do such. Breaking the ToS we signed up to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kriegsmier Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Viacom sucks. Everywhere you turn on youtube now "Video Removed due to copyright infringment - Viacom etc etc blah blah blah" Who cares? Viacom sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ididnotlol Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Viacom sucks. Everywhere you turn on youtube now "Video Removed due to copyright infringment - Viacom etc etc blah blah blah" Who cares? Viacom sucks. Sueing was the start of political correctness and cencorship, blame this for losing all good things. Seriously, if this continues instead of the film alien vs predator, the films will be immigrant alien vs internet predator. This is madnees - THIS IS NOT SPARTA!!!!!!!!!! I love this sig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kemikalkadet Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 You guys need to read the actual article: [hide=Read of the Article]Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses. Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeply private information" and violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental habits were revealed. Representatives of both companies said they were looking to work out how to comply with the court order to share video data while ensuring personally identifiable information is secure. Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears, saying it had no interest in identifying individual users. "Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said. "Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ... will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner."[/hide] They are breaking so many laws there, do not know how a Judge was convinced to order Google to do such. Breaking the ToS we signed up to. You're right, although i can understand where Viacom is coming from. Google and Viacom are both giant companies, and when one of these companies is making money by hosting pirated material of the other, it's not surprising that they'd want to put a stop to it. Saying that, i was shocked at the action they actually took, and the fact it was allowed. I'm not really up on US law, but here in the UK the data protection act would certainly come into play. That's another thing i wonder.. a UK user signs up to an american site (youtube) then a case occurs like with viacom vs. youtube, do only US laws apply to the outcome (i.e. the revealing of data) and therefore disregard any overseas privacy laws? Seems like a bit of a legal minefield. Well, if any good comes of this case, i hope it will be the distinction between liscenced media and pirated on the site. For the consumer it's near impossible to tell which videos are liscensed and allowed to be viewed and which are ripped. At the moment youtube is mass piracy on a socially accepted platform. There's no difference between torrenting a tv show or watching it on a links site like sidereel and watching it on youtube, it's just youtube has become the accepted place to do it. I'd imagine most people don't even equate it to piracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoAtePie Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Shouldn't they be targeting torrents? Where people *cough* me *cough* download and share copyrighted material more than anything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InkofDeath Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Shouldn't they be targeting torrents? Where people *cough* me *cough* download and share copyrighted material more than anything? Far too many countries, and different laws to even attempt just torrents, you need to attack something that is large enough that it'll affect the downloading, Google. For example Canada is a heaven for file sharing, no negative consequences at all, yet America there is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaN Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 In the United States website owners are not liable for content uploaded by their users, but they must respond to DMCA complaints within a "resonable timeframe". So I don't think google need worry. I would be more concerned about this. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technol ... t-han.html That's the problem with Google and the only thing I don't like about them is the way they retain data. ~Dan64AuSince 27 Aug 2002 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latinoking Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 Man, if American accounts get affected by this. It's so dumb. Viacom won't win in the long run. I can't believe the Judge is allowing this. I am Teh_King[My dA][My Last.FM][My Twitter] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoAtePie Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 This was interesting, he talks about Viacom halfway through [Obscene language] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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