MsInterpreted tipped me off to this article, released today from CNet, which hopefully will put a few of the Stephen Colbert fans out there at ease:
Google to Viacom: ‘Respect YouTube users’ privacy’
July 3, 2008 9:35 AM PDT…
“We are pleased the court put some limits on discovery,” Google said in the statement, “including refusing to allow Viacom to access users’ private videos and our search technology. We are disappointed the court granted Viacom’s overreaching demand for viewing history. We are asking Viacom to respect users’ privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court’s order.”
CNET News.com reported that Viacom is under strict instructions from the court not to use the data for anything other than proving the prevalence of infringement on YouTube.
Viacom, therefore, is forbidden from targeting individual users in the manner of the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against individuals found to be downloading illegal music.
…
What might prove interesting in the meantime is that among the people Google has asked to depose are Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of the The Colbert Report.
Here’s hoping that Viacom chooses to listen to the courts.
Wired also has a piece out:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-orders-yo.html?cid=1210
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
Thanks for the credit, but I actually got the link from TWoP’s Alexandria Bay.
While I still don’t like the thought of people’s IP addresses getting turned over in discovery (I just can’t stomach the privacy implications), I am at least slightly relieved by the restriction CNet refers to.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
My god…I was having a small panic attack.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
It’s still not good, though. Viacom apparently requested both IP addresses and “other” user data, which I’m not happy about at all. There are articles about this in the LA Times and New York Times and so forth now that seem to highlight Viacom’s eagerness to work with Google on keeping the user data safeguarded and anonymous, but I’m still skeptical. I don’t see any reason why the court thought weakening the VPPA like this was necessary.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
Thank god!
Seriously, what I want to know is why the networks are so upset about this anyway. I can see about the illegal sharing thing, but if it’s only small clips and fan montages, why bother?
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
Sorry to keep harping on this, but Forbes and Salon have some informative articles posted now.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
No, bring it, it’s good to hear more about it if it’s out there.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
The Forbes one I linked goes into some detail on the safeguards in place, which sound about as good as one can get.
My problem is that I don’t really care how many safeguards you put in place, Viacom’s interest in finding out whether people watched TDS/TCR clips does not seem nearly important enough (to me) to warrant the judge blowing off VPPA. Ask YouTube to reveal how much time its users spent watching the clips, or how many views there were, etc., but do NOT approve a Viacom dragnet like that.
Wiredpen has a post up about this, too. It does seem to be hitting all the MSM outlets now, too, so let’s hope Google appeals this or someone involved at Viacom comes to his/her senses and withdraws the request. Because this is just plain bad.
Shout Out (Hey!):
0
Thank you very much for posting these articles, Ms. I and DB. I believe Viacom about as far as I can comfortably spit a rat…and that ain’t far. First, there was the Great YouTube Purge and now this… >:-[
Shout Out (Hey!):
0