Not that this is any secret, but US based media giant Viacom is suing Google, which bought YouTube in 2006 for $1 Billion US. Viacom argues that media content it should control is being loaded and accessed illegally on YouTube. Viacom has argued YouTube and Google could do a better job of blocking access to copyrighted material, but don’t, because that’s what most people are searching for.
That admission by Google and Youtube has now come back to haunt them. Viacom has capitalized on Google’s position during proceedings in a New York courtroom. Taking statements from Google’s own corporate blog, Viacom asked a N.Y. judge to compel Google to produce detailed information about the users of its Youtube service, including search logs, individual IP addresses and a record of the videos they accessed on YouTube.
These logs will show how many times people around the world are watching Viacom productions on their computers, and will give some indication of the revenue Viacom is losing as a result. The data will also give Viacom a clear picture of exactly who watches their shows (along with those of their competitors), when, how often, and from which broadcast sources. The judge ruled Viacom’s request was reasonable, and Google is now legally bound to hand over its search logs.
Apparently the rights of the individual to their privacy is being lost in the shuffle. The judge stated that Google’s database “contains, for each instance a video is watched, the unique user who watched it, the time when the user started to watch the video, the internet protocol address other devices connected to the internet use to identify the user’s computer (“IP address”), and the identifier for the video … that database (which is stored on live computer hard drives) is the only existing record of how often each video has been viewed during various time periods.”
This begs the question if an IP address be used to identify an individual? The simple answer is yes it can. Much like the hunt for “more” illegal online activities, law enforcement officials can easily identify and track an individual based on IP. So, if you have you been accessing Viacom content online…
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