Judge Orders Google To Give All YouTube User Viewing Histories To Viacom

This is absolutely ridiculous and just the type of thing that makes me fume with anger: a judge has ordered Google to turn over the histories of all YouTube viewers (which include what videos each watched along with IP addresses, user names, and even when they were watched) to Viacom for the purposes of identifying how often copyright material on YouTube is being watched. (A PDF copy of the order can be found here.)

This order is a flagrant violation of the privacy of anyone who has ever used YouTube, but even worse - the court order is also, as the EFF points out, a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act (18 U.S.C. § 2710) which clearly states:

(F) pursuant to a court order, in a civil proceeding upon a showing of compelling need for the information that cannot be accommodated by any other means, if--
(i) the consumer is given reasonable notice, by the person seeking the disclosure, of the court proceeding relevant to the issuance of the court order; and
(ii) the consumer is afforded the opportunity to appear and contest the claim of the person seeking the disclosure.

This means that Viacom not only has the burden of proving that the information they seek cannot possibly be gained by any other means (the view counters on each YouTube video will easily tell them how much a particular infringing video was watched, which is all they need to determine viewership), but that pursuant to the court order, every single user of YouTube must be given a chance to appear in the court and contest the court order before the information is turned over, with a reasonable lead time for notice.

Neither of those conditions has been met in this case, and therefore the court order is clearly illegal. The judge presiding in the case and issuing the order, Judge Louis L. Stanton, even openly flouted the Video Privacy Protection Act:

defendants cite no authority barring them from disclosing such information in civil discovery proceedings, and their privacy concerns are speculative.

The EFF has already filed a complaint, and we can only hope that Google continues to defend its users' privacy by refusing the court order and fighting it in court, as they did before it was issued.

Those who are as concerned as I am should contact their Congressman, or speak with and donate to the EFF to help them fight this wanton invasion of privacy.

Judge Louis L. Stanton of the of the New York District Court: you're on notice.

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom [Wired]