Irish watchdog slams ruling over YouTube
IRELAND'S Data Commissioner has criticised a court order forcing YouTube to hand over any information it has about its users as a breach of privacy and the sign of a Big Brother internet culture.
A US court ruled this week that internet search engine Google must reveal the viewing habits of every person who has ever used the YouTube video website, after the initial demand for the information from Viacom, a company which owns copyright to many films and TV programmes featured on YouTube.
Viacom plans to use the information as its base for a billion-dollar lawsuit against Google based on alleged copyright infringement on YouTube, which is owned by Google.
US District Court Judge Louis Stanton has backed Viacom's claims that Google acts as a willing accomplice to internet users who breach the copyright laws -- saying that the log in names of YouTube users and internet protocol (IP) addresses identifying which computers they used for viewing videos must now be made available.
Viacom believe the move is the next step in enforcing copyright law on the internet.
Privacy
Commenting on the development, Data Commissioner Billy Hawkes said that the action only proved that internet users have little to no privacy.
And warning that the step was a further indication of the Big Brother attitude to individual privacy, he added: "As users, we must take responsibility to use the tools available to us to guard our privacy. This includes availing of the option to delete your search history on search engines and, indeed, the history of videos viewed on websites such as YouTube."
Viacom, owner of Comedy Central and MTV, wants the information to find out if YouTube viewers watch copyrighted shows in an effort to bolster its $1bn infringement lawsuit against Google.
The EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party concluded earlier this year that companies such as Google, Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc must cut the time they keep the data to comply with EU privacy laws. The group had earlier told Google it may be violating EU privacy laws by preserving user data for as long as two years.
- Fiachra O'Cionnaith
