Viacom Decides To Avoid Torches And Pitchforks, Asks For Non-Private YouTube Data
It seems Viacom has woken up to the reality that violating the privacy of every single YouTube user *might* just piss off more than a few people, and so they've backed off their demand for personally identifying data in their request for YouTube viewing data from Google:
As we let you know on July 4, YouTube received a court order to produce viewing history data. We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be providing that information.
If you're so inclined, you can read the official legal jargon via pdf.
Hallelujah!
It still worries me that it took Viacom deciding that they didn't need the private user data for this to happen. The judge presiding over the case should have been able to tell that Viacom did not need personally identifiable data in order to determine that their copyright was being infringed upon.
The Law and Your Privacy: An Update [YouTube Blog]
[via: BBC]
Den Den Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, In the News, On Your Desk on 16 July 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: Google, lawsuit, privacy, Viacom, YouTube
Within one hour of its unboxing, The One became the undisputed ruler of Tiny's entire home. Buy this or despair.
Viacom finally realized that in this case, they can't do the usual American justice: go after every little guy and squeeze them for money (see: RIAA/MPAA).