Google ordered to release YouTube user info
Thursday, 03 Jul 2008 18:21
YouTube users' details to be handed over to Viacom
A US court has ordered Google, the owners of YouTube, to hand over the details of every user who has ever watched or posted a video on the sharing website.
The ruling, which could threaten the privacy of millions of internet users, comes as a result of the ongoing £1 billion (£500 million) legal case being fought between Google and American production company Viacom.
Viacom alleges that YouTube has breached its copyright on a number of occasions because of the content being posted on the popular video-sharing site.
Google must provide a full log to Viacom detailing all user log-in details, what content they have viewed and the IP address of their computer - which could enable the company to identify individual users.
And although the ruling has been handed down by a court in the United States, legal experts believe it may apply to users across the globe.
Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion (£820 million) in 2006 and it claims it polices the site constantly to ensure copyrighted material is taken down whenever cases are brought to its attention.
However, Viacom claims Google has been profligate in its duties and claims to have found more than 150,000 instances where content from its back catalogue of programmes has been published and remains publicly available.