Viacom’s legal battle with Google over YouTube’s alleged copyright infringement has developed further since my first installment. Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, alleged that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement after finding around 160,000 unauthorised clips of its programmes on YouTube.
The latest news from the lawsuit is the ruling by a US court that Google must hand Viacom a YouTube viewing log with details of everyone who has ever watched any video on YouTube (so basically everyone on the planet..) The viewing log will contain the log-in ID of millions of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details – and will total more than 12 terabytes of data – bad news for everyone out there who may have watched some copyrighted videos (so again, basically everyone on the planet…)
Viacom say they want the data to “compare the attractiveness of allegedly infringing video with that of non-infringing videos”. But, digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (the EFF) are arguing that the ruling is a “set-back to privacy rights” and is potentially unlawful because the log data will contain personally identifiable data. They are urging Viacom to “back off this overbroad request” want Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users. I can’t see it happening though, and I think there are going to be some pretty harsh words towards Viacom – and the Judge that ruled the decision.
The court have also ruled that Google must divulge the details of all videos that have been removed from YouTube for any reason.
Tags battle copyright infringement Google lawsuit legal log online programmes the EFF Viacom YouTube