[Fmpro] Viacom

[LesHurdle]

A U.S. federal judge has ordered Google Inc. to hand over the records  
of every video users have watched on its video-sharing site YouTube  
to media giant Viacom, records that include users' names and IP  
addresses.

What if this data were supplied to PRO's !!


L

YouTube ordered to hand over user details

A U.S. federal judge has ordered Google Inc. to hand over the records  
of every video users have watched on its video-sharing site YouTube  
to media giant Viacom, records that include users' names and IP  
addresses.

03/07/2008 11:24:33 AM

CBC News

Viacom is suing Google for not doing enough to keep its copyrighted  
videos from television shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart  
and The Colbert Report off the popular website YouTube.

Viacom, which owns several U.S. television networks including MTV,  
VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Spike TV, alleged in $1-billion  
US lawsuit launched in March 2007 that almost 160,000 unauthorized  
clips of its programming are available on YouTube. Those clips have  
been viewed more than 1.5 billion times, Viacom charged.

The company argued it needed access to the information on user  
viewing habits to prove that copyright-infringing material is more  
popular than user-generated videos on YouTube, which would strengthen  
its case against Google.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, Louis Stanton, a judge with the U.S.  
District Court for the southern district of New York, agreed with  
Viacom and ordered Google to turn over the information.

Google argued user data should not be handed over because of privacy  
concerns, but Stanton dismissed those concerns as "speculative."

San Francisco-based privacy advocacy group The Electronic Frontier  
Foundation said the ruling was "a setback 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," wrote EFF's senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl on Wednesday.

Viacom also asked for the underlying code Google and YouTube use to  
search for keywords and video in order to demonstrate what Google  
could be doing to block infringing videos. They also wanted access to  
Google's advertising database scheme in the hopes of proving that  
infringing videos are driving advertising revenue.

But the court denied these requests, arguing the code and ad data was  
too valuable to Google.

YouTube and Google should not be made to place this vital asset in  
hazard merely to allay speculation," said Stanton. "A plausible  
showing that YouTube and Google’s denials are false, and that the  
search function can and has been used to discriminate in favour of  
infringing content, should be required before disclosure of so  
valuable and vulnerable an asset is compelled."

At issue in the case is whether Google has fulfilled its requirements  
under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The DMCA gives websites protection against infringement claims  
provided copyrighted material is removed upon notification. Viacom  
has argued Google could do a better job of blocking the infringing  
material but doesn't do so because infringing material makes up a  
significant portion of the website's traffic.