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Court Orders Google to Disclose Personal Info

Newspaper current event by NomadSoul on 04 July 2008, tagged as internet, privacy, google, youtube, and law

Since YouTube caught on a few years ago, people have uploaded clips of their favorite TV shows and movies as well as videos they made themselves, which has of course raised the ire of media producers. Yesterday, during a court case on the legality of this issue, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton ordered Google Inc. to turn over personal data pertaining to YouTube users' viewing habits to Viacom, in order to prove users watched illegitimately copied content more than user-generated content.

This landmark decision may be setting a dangerous precedent for the future of privacy on the Internet and who has access to personal information, but when Google raised this issue in court, the judge dismissed the concern as "speculative." Also significant is the issue of where the users live. Does a U.S. court have the right to decide what happens to personal information for international users?

Viacom also wanted access to Google's search engine source code, but the judge denied that request, stating that it would compromise Google's competitive edge.

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Libel Tourism by LordDilly :: NR8

Does a U.S. court have the right to decide what happens to personal information for international users?

Funny you mention that, because NY Courts took the opposite tack:

New York's highest court has passed up an opportunity to protect American authors from the libel judgments of foreign courts. In a decision handed down yesterday, the Court of Appeals in Albany told a New York-based researcher that she could not use the courts here to challenge a British judgment ordering her to pay 30,000 British pounds — more than $60,000 — for defaming a Saudi billionaire.

Fortunately, the New York State legislature passed the "Libel Tourism Protection Act," which "declares overseas defamation judgments unenforceable in New York unless the foreign defamation law provides, in substance and application, the same free speech protections guaranteed under our own constitution, and it gives New York residents and publishers the opportunity to have their day in court here in New York."

Posted 04 July 2008, Hide, Reply
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ID users and then what? by tomtolman :: NR5

It's also important to note that if the data includes username and IP (as the court said it should) then it can be used to identify users as we learned in the AOL data release.

Will Viacom start RIAA like action against users who have uploaded copyrighted content?

Posted 08 July 2008, Hide, Reply