Viacom and the YouTube privacy problem
YouTube is an amazing site and one that has changed the way web users watch videos; people will now listen to music by playing different YouTube videos on their home computers and on the move via cell phones like the Apple iPhone.
Today we hear that a U.S. judge has ordered Google Inc to hand over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc, this has caused outcry from some web users because of privacy fears.
Viacom owns MTV Networks and Paramount and they are currently in the middle of a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube.
What would worry some YouTube users is the fact that the Southern District of New York Judge wants information on users IP addresses, what videos they watched, usernames of YouTube viewers and more for evidence.
The difficult part is being able to ensure personally identifiable information is secure and to comply with the court order, some blogs are claiming that this order will violate the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act.
Viacom has said in a statement that they have no plans on identifying individual users and just want to show video piracy patterns in the court case against YouTube.
Source: Read
Get the latest news in our RSS Feed, Newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
Viacom has said in a statement that they have no plans on identifying individual users and just want to show video piracy patterns in the court case against YouTube.
Notice how they say they have no plans. The do not say they will not use. This way if they want to use it in the future they can. And they will be the day after they get the info trust me.
I do not know why the Judge wants such detailed information. In this age everyone knows about piracy and how bad it is. What they seem to be ignorant about is the fact that you cannot stop it. It will happen and has been happening for ages.
You want to beat piracy. Find the root cause of it. IT is not that hard to figure out. Lower your damn prices. Stop paying outreagous salaries. Does someone really need to make 22 million for being in a movie. Do people really need 100 million dollar salaries. Does software really need to be so damn expensive. (Thank GOD for open source which in my opinion has a better programming network)
Face it you are the root cause of the problem and to stop the problem you need to illiminate the root cause.
GREED
Just my opinion.
I stand corrected on the ViaCom privacy issue. Guess I should have visited more thenone site befor commenting. But I still hold my opinion of the whole issue.
“Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user,” Viacom said.
“Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain … will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner.”
Maybe it’s time that all ISPs institute a “surf safe” policy. i.e. No logs of any kind are kept and IP’s are not recorded on any user. No logs - nothing for the Feds or bounty hunters to suppoena.
This is a complete invasion of privacy on the part of Viacom and our user information doesn’t have any relevance to their billion dollar lawsuit against Google. Google should be able to anatomize the user information before handing over 12 terabytes of personal information so my privacy and the privacy of millions like me are protected. I have a campaign that will force Viacom to allow Google/YouTube to protect us or 100,000 will boycott Viacom and all its subsidiaries: https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/stop-viacom-from-invading-our-you-tube-privacy