Viacom "wants to know what Google staff are YouTubing"

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 14 Jul 2008 at 14:24

Viacom wants to know which YouTube videos have been uploaded by members of Google's staff, in what could be a potentially explosive aspect of its copyright infrigement claim against the search giant.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Google to hand over the details of people watching videos on YouTube to Viacom.

The viewer log contains the IP addresses, usernames and details of the videos watched and uploaded by YouTube members.

Google asked Viacom to allow it to make the viewer log anonymous, but according to CNet.com, Viacom wants to know which videos Google staff have watched and, crucially, uploaded. Google has refused to comply, according to the site.

If Google staff have been uploading copyrighted material it could blow the company's "Safe Harbour" defence under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects service providers from prosecution if they were unaware of the illegal acts being committed on their service.

Google has long maintained that it cannot prevent users from uploading illegally copied content, but will take down copyrighted videos when informed of their presence by the rights holder.

Google has declined to comment on the latest proceedings.

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