Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs

[calculoso]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...tories&s_name=

Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a US$1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when.

U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton authorized full access to the YouTube logs after Viacom Inc. and other copyright holders argued that they needed the data to show whether their copyright-protected videos are more heavily watched than amateur clips.

The data would not be publicly released but disclosed only to the plaintiffs, and it would include less specific identifiers than a user's real name or e-mail address.
...
The database includes information on when each video gets played, which can be used to determine how often a clip is viewed. Attached to each entry is each viewer's unique login ID and the Internet Protocol, or IP, address for that viewer's computer.
...
Viacom is seeking at least $1 billion in damages from Google, saying YouTube has built a business by using the Internet to "willfully infringe" copyrights on Viacom shows, which include Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoon.

WTF is up with courts?

[calculoso]

Rutherford (WR77) is going to be talking about this at some point today...

[Bobblehead]

If they are just looking for the aggregate totals then why do they need specific user listings?

I hope the Judge's info shows up....

[mykalberta]

I am in full agreement that Youtube "has built a business by using the Internet to "willfully infringe" copyrights on Viacom shows, which include Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoon."

However, if they are suing Google, then why do they need the specific user identifiers - unless its to monetize the different infractions. IP addresses wont really specifiy the users since they would then have to get legal action against different ISP's.

And in the US, not sure about Canada, IP address logs for users are only kept for certain criminal infractions as well as homeland security. I can't see a judge expanding that for copywrite infringement as that would open a Pandoras box of shat.

[SebC]

Google should format the logs in Wingdings, print them out, then truck them to Viacom.