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p2pnet news | Advertising | P2P:- Judge Protects YouTube’s Source Code, Throws Users To The Wolves
That’s the headline to TechCrunch’s post on the VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC., et al., v. YOUTUBE INC., YOUTUBE LLC, and GOOGLE INC court case.
And it says it all.
Google’s YouTube has been ordered to give Viacom records of not only each and every video watched, but also the date, time and IP address of each person who watched it.
Says the 25 page court document >>>
Defendants encourage individuals to upload videos to the YouTube site, where YouTube makes them available for immediate viewing by members of the public free of charge. Although YouTube touts itself as a service for sharing home videos, the well-known reality of YouTube’s business is far different. YouTube has filled its library with entire episodes and movies and significant segments of popular copyrighted programming from Plaintiffs and other copyright owners, that neither YouTube nor the users who submit the works are licensed to use in this manner. Because YouTube users contribute pirated copyrighted works to YouTube by the thousands, including those owned by Plaintiffs, the videos “deliver[ed]” by YouTube include a vast unauthorized collection of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted audiovisual works. YouTube’s use of this content directly competes with uses that Plaintiffs have authorized and for which Plaintiffs receive valuable compensation.
Judge Louis L. Stanton has ordered Google turn over, “every YouTube username, the associated IP address and the videos that user has watched on YouTube,” says TechCrunch, continuing:
“Google will also be required to hand over copies of every video removed from Youtube for any reason (DMCA notices or user-initiated deletions). Stanton dismissed Google’s argument that the order will violate user privacy, saying such privacy concerns are merely ’speculative’.”
But, says the court document, >>>
Plaintiffs move jointly pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37 to compel YouTube and Google to produce certain electronically stored information and documents, including a critical trade secret: the computer source code which controls both the YouTube.com search function and Google’s internet search tool “Google.com”. YouTube and Google cross-move pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c) for a protective order barring disclosure of that search code, which they contend is responsible for Google’s growth “from its founding in 1998 to a multi-national presence with more than 16,000 employees and a market valuation of roughly $150 billion” (Singhal Decl. ¶¶ 3, 11), and cannot be disclosed without risking the loss of the business.
Oh. Well, we can’t have that.
The order came as, “part of a sweeping request by Viacom, where it attempted to acquire source code for the site’s search engine and copyright video filter - which YouTube wrote as the result of previous litigation with copyright holders - as well as copies of YouTube parent Google’s advertisement database schema, and copies of all videos on the site marked ‘private’,” says Daily Tech.
‘Exploiting the devotion of fans’
In the fight between ‘old-media’ giant, Viacom, and ‘new media giant’ YouTube, who’s going to win? - p2pnet wondered in 2007, going on >>>
Or to pose the real question, which of the two will be the most successful in getting you to part with your hard earned cash by somehow persuading you to take advertisers’ blandishments seriously? Not that you actually enter the equation.
It’s assumed you’ll be there. As always.
YouTube is a “scrounger” that’s, “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google” says Britain’s The Economist.
“With these words,” Viacom said it’s suing Google and YouTube for$1 billion for allegedly infringing on Viacom’s copyright, says the story.
After all, says Viacom, 160,000 clips have been shown 1.5 billions times on GooTube. And based on the number of videos and their viewings, and the amount Viacom is demanding, each clip must be worth some $4.17.
But, Viacom complains bitterly, it didn’t get one red penny.
.
.Stumble It!
TechCrunch - Judge Protects YouTube’s Source Code, Throws Users To The Wolves, July 3, 2008
Daily Tech - YouTube Ordered to Give Complete User Logs to Viacom, July 3, 2008
p2pnet - Viacom videos: $4.17 each, March 16, 2007
The Economist - Old media sue, March 14, 2007
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:23 am
I’d love to see what would happen if Google shut down YouTube for a week and replaced it with a message saying “YouTube has been shut down because of frivilous lawsuits from companies like Viacom. If you disagree with this, please let them know at the following contact addresses…”
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
That would be amazing… they should do it!
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
+1 from me for that suggestion from Rekrul!
To bad I don#t heve the money to sue those viacom assholes their ass off and this incompetent judge is unfortunately under your laws 100% imune for illegal stuff he does in the course of his job.
european (german here) privacy laws would bring them both behind bars for what they want to do with “my” data too!