Viacom wants to know what you're watching on YouTube
On Tuesday, a judge in the Viacom vs. Google/YouTube copyright case ordered Google to give up detailed logs of users' search behavior.
As Wired's Threat Level puts it: "Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses."
Viacom's hope is to show that users watch so many infringing videos that YouTube can be seen as nothing more than a hive of copyright violations and piracy. One question, however, is why Viacom needs access to the identities of YouTube users, many of whom are young people and even children. When they know peoples' private viewing habits, what will they do with the information? Remember this?
I know I don't want anyone seeing what I watch on YouTube--any more than I want people to know what I'm searching on Google, watching on TV, or listening to on the radio. YouTube users are simply using a video system that's available free online.
Suddenly that transgression has landed their private information in the hands of a sue-happy multinational media company. That don't seem right. And according to the EFF, it may not even be legal: As Congress recognized [in the Video Privacy Protections Act], your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection."
Viacom is not going to be making a lot of friends with this, nor is it presenting a friendly image to the young people who are, increasingly, its target demographic. The company is so locked into this crusade that it can't even see what it's doing to itself.
image courtesy loan samelli
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posted by atiedesandy @ 08:31
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