Google vs Viacom

This is one of the biggest stories on the internet tubes at the moment and this will probably be the least informative writing on the subject but its my blog so there.

In a nutshell a judge has ruled that Google have to hand over details of all Youtube users including IP addresses to Viacom so that the latter can prove that commercial content is viewed more than the homegrown baby pushes dog under car / political mash up type of thing.

Viacom wanted more, they wanted the source code that underpins Youtube but the judge ruled against them on that one.

Easy to read this as company privacy trumping individual privacy.

Everything quoted is from:
This post in Wired

The Google’s position is summed up thus:

Viacom filed suit against Google in March 2007, seeking more than $1 billion in damages for allowing users to upload clips of Viacom’s copyright material. Google argues that the law provides a safe harbor for online services so long as they comply with copyright takedown requests.

This line in the wired article amused me.

Those requests were denied in whole, except that Google will have to turn over data about how often each private video has been watched and by how many persons

The ‘how often each private video has been watched makes sense but the’by how many persons”…? Unless I have missed something there isn’t a technology yet that can report back on how many people are sitting around a computer at any given time.

Seriously though this potentially is a big deal and it is legal positioning now that will dictate the direction that the internet takes in the future. In this particular case I suspect that Viacom are acting to protect their future interests even though they are not really sure of how this will actually work. After all isn’t content appearing on Youtube free advertizing? In the end it all comes down to control, people in positions of power love control even more than the rest of us mere mortals. A statement of the blindingly obvious I know.

Of course the billions of dollars that they are chasing in damages is a nice bonus.