Google ordered to hand over YouTube logs - report

Telecomworldwire,  July 4, 2008  

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TELECOMWORLDWIRE-4 July 2008-Google ordered to hand over YouTube logs - report(C)1994-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

A US court ruled on Tuesday 1 July, in a copyright infringement case brought against the Google-owned YouTube website, that YouTube must release a 12 terabyte log containing information identifying which video clips from the YouTube website were downloaded to what IP addresses, and when.

Reuters reported that privacy advocates from the Electronic Frontier Foundation have said that the order 'threatens to expose deeply private information' and violates the 1988 US federal Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the release of information about a persons video viewing habits.

Viacom, the plaintiff in the case, has said in a statement that it has no intention of identifying individual users, but that it needs the log file to identify which video clips uploaded to YouTube infringe its copyrights, and how many times those clips have each been viewed.

YouTube have reportedly indicated that they will not appeal the ruling regarding the release of the log file, but that they have written to Viacom to request that YouTube be allowed to anonymise the user identification data in the log file to protect the privacy of the individual YouTube users.

Viacom have said that any information the company or its advisors obtain will be used exclusively to prove its case against YouTube and that the data will be handled in a highly confidential manner.

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