Jello wrote:

Decius wrote:

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.

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.

Who didn't see this coming? Google shouldn't be keeping this data period, because this will continue to happen. Fuck google.

Personally, I say we sue Viacom for invasion of privacy. Getting class action status seems like it would be a doddle. They could have requested just the information about who accessed the clips they have identified as infringing, but this whole time they've refused to actually identify any specific clips as infringing, instead acting as if every piece of video found on the Internet belongs to them. I was of the impression that someone has to actually cite a specific infringing work for any sort of suit to take place.

Goodness knows someone should be suing them for this. They've just obtained via lawsuit viewer behaviour information about one of their competitors that they would otherwise have to spend a medium-sized fortune to obtain. Frankly I think that was their entire goal.

RE: Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom | Threat Level from Wired.com