[El Pilchinator]

http://news.bbc.co.u...ogy/7488009.stm

Quote

Google must divulge YouTube log


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 YouTube the details of all videos that have been removed from the site for any reason.

The beginning of the end for net? I don't think they can honestly enforce this, as user IDs and IPs will contain privacy information, something I doubt would be upheld. As it stands right now, this is huge.

This post has been edited by El Pilchinator: 03 July 2008 - 09:08 AM

[Republic of Scotland]

Who or what is this Viacom, and what exactly does it do?

See, some judge has just given some company I've never heard of access to my location and viewing habits. Screw them.

[Kenadian_2006]

Speculative!? !@#$@#$ eh, and just when the SCOTUS seemed like it got its head out of its $@! the US courts pull this steaming turd out. Good god, they do realize that they will be violating the privacy of hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people who ARE NOT AMERICAN and who the US courts HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO JURISDICTION OVER.

Whatever judge ruled this, $%&@ you. $%&@ you in the neck.

Jesus this angers me...as you can see.

This post has been edited by Kenadian_2006: 03 July 2008 - 09:14 AM

[Lamuella]

Republic of Scotland, on Jul 3 2008, 11:12 AM, said:

Who or what is this Viacom, and what exactly does it do?

See, some judge has just given some company I've never heard of access to my location and viewing habits. Screw them.

Viacom owns many many TV stations and production companies, including MTV, BET, Paramount, Dreamworks, shockwave.com atomfilms, addictinggames, cmt, comedy central, nickelodeon, rhapsody,spike tv, and vh1

[Republic of Scotland]

Massive Corporations have their fingers in everything from the mass media to politics. They don't own the internet and they don't like that, so it makes sense they'll come after it.

As if they need the money.

[El Pilchinator]

What lamuella said is correct. Viacom is the parent company for all of those listed. A full list is available here: http://en.wikipedia....owned_by_Viacom

Kenadian_2006, on Jul 3 2008, 11:14 AM, said:

Jesus this angers me...as you can see.

I couldn't tell. I'm not sure how the different site versions play into this, but it would seem from the outset that some of these people involved are not under US court jurisdiction.


At least they didn't get the source code of the website.

[TheDave]

I should imagine 12 terabytes of data will take a long time to get through...

[Lord GVChamp]

This is bad news!


EDIT: But maybe I can find out how many people have watched my uber-1337 video!!! http://www.youtube.c...h?v=7ppPnEJGRKA

This post has been edited by Lord GVChamp: 03 July 2008 - 09:43 AM

[Dr Suave]

So they know what I watch on Youtube? And this was decided by an american court? And they now can watch the whole world's youtube goings? ¬_¬

Lord GVChamp, on Jul 3 2008, 04:39 PM, said:

This is bad news!

(Thanks for sigging me, lol, I could use the publicity)

This post has been edited by Elbows: 03 July 2008 - 09:45 AM

[Lord GVChamp]

Elbows, on Jul 3 2008, 10:43 AM, said:

So they know what I watch on Youtube?



(Thanks for sigging me, lol, I could use the publicity)

Yes you could, unfamous you

[Jakevy Jacob XXVI]

That is disgusting

[thedestro]

Well we definitely have to make sure these extensive multi-billion dollar corporations don't go out of business.

[Xiao Weng]

I can't wait to see them filter the data based on Rickrolls.

[Vindrstoc]

Wow. I pity them. I bet loads of porn is going to be posted on YouTube just to spite them.
But still, this decision was just plain bad.

[Gran the Adequate]

Now they will know of my love for busty asian women.

[Gebiv]

Never did like Viacom.

It's things like this that almost make me not a libertarian.

EDIT:

Kenadian hit this right on the dot for me. A government can't do this for something international like the internet. This should have been decided in International court, if anything.

This post has been edited by Gebiv: 03 July 2008 - 11:02 AM

[Xiao Weng]

Unfortunately, I believe there's already precedent, such as the British court suing an American in regards to the books of hers that were being sold in British bookstores.

[DaJoW]

I hope it's 12 TB in .txt, they'd have so much fun.

[Gebiv]

I hope it's fixedsys, 8 pt. font, and that they have to read it in a 64x64 terminal window.

Edit: And all the font is #00FF00 and #FFFF00 on a white background. While we're at it, let's make it all bold, and put it in Russian.

This post has been edited by Gebiv: 03 July 2008 - 11:12 AM

[Jeeooh]

I hope that I can see all videos I've watched in the past as well. Would be a nice addition, since I keep forgetting what I listen to.