Viacom Gets YouTube User Data
In the ongoing copyright litigation between Google and Viacom, a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered Google (PDF) to hand over data on every YouTube user, including username, the associated IP address, and a list of all the the videos that user ever watched.
In this lawsuit, Viacom is seeking more than $1 billion in damages because of alleged copyright violations on YouTube.
Besides this user data, Viacom also sought access to Google's source code for its web and video search, as well as for its 'Video ID' program. The judge, however, denied access to the code, because, "considered against its value and secrecy, plaintiffs have not made a sufficient showing of need for its disclosure." It's interesting that Google's trade secrets are worth protecting while the privacy of users is not.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that this ruling is in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPAA), which forbids the disclosure of personally identifiable rental data without a consumer's consent. The EFF argues that because some users on YouTube used the full names as login names, the VPAA applies to YouTube.
Mark Cuban also has an interesting take on this story. He argues that the data Google now has to release might show that Google actively removes pornographic content from YouTube, which would then lead Google to lose its DMCA protection.
For a lot of users, the question is going to be what Viacom will do with all this data . Are they planning to sue individual users as well as Google? To substantiate its claims against Google, Viacom doesn't really need to be able to identify individual users.
Update: For now, it seems that Viacom is restricted to using the data solely to prove its copyright claims.
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Obviously users are data and data are potential profits, I hardly see how "rights" would be taken into account here...
Anyway, after this little spike of cynicism my question is :
How can a company actually prove that you as a person are the legit owner of this or that account ? Based on the nickname, hardly ? IP, what if it is shared ? text analysis, does it have any value ?
Really strange to me that you can prove from data this person is this account without violating privacy.
So Google can be forced to release private user data? I don't care if Viacom knows what videos I watch, but I care that Google can be forced to give away more private info about my activities on the Web.
(love the friendfeed integration in the comments btw)
I think this is a ridiculous privacy invasion, and that Viacom is stupid for asking for YouTube's source code. How would that help them prove.. anything?
Posted by: Chacha
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July 3, 2008 11:11 AM
Damn, so they're gonna know who watched the 2girls1cup video. LOLz
Posted by: Dossy Shiobara
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July 3, 2008 11:28 AM
Yes and movies like this one too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laz3eni6Iq4
Oh shit, I am in big trouble!
This is insanity. Nothing is safe online -- that's for sure. They seem to say they're going to sue those who watch copyrighted content. That is utterly ridiculous.
Nothing is safe online and people should be smart about that. If Viacom can get the source code and prove active filtering then Google has no leg to stand on. They clearly used the DMCA as a weapon of defense and now it’s going to bite them.
Viacom doesn't really need to be able to identify individual users
They could still find out who was watching hilary,obama, or ron paul videos, they could still find out who believes the 911 was an inside job, and they could still use that data secretly for the bush family.