Viacom, YouTube agree to mask user data

YouTube will be allowed to mask important user information from records it must turn over to Viacom, Google said in a blog post Monday.

"Viacom and the other litigants have backed off their demand for YouTube user viewing histories," Google said in a statement. "We have reached agreement to anonymize the data."

A Viacom spokesman declined to comment.

The move comes after a federal court earlier this month ordered Google's YouTube to hand over usernames, IP addresses, and viewing histories to Viacom, parent company of Comedy Central and MTV. This ignited a controversy over Internet privacy and put Viacom on the defensive.

Last year, Viacom accused Google's YouTube of violating its copyright in a $1 billion lawsuit. Following the court's order, Viacom was widely criticized for intruding on people's online privacy even though the company had said it never asked to receive personally identifying information.

To this point, the agreement appears to make everyone a winner. Viacom will look like a responsible Internet citizen. Google will no doubt be credited for standing up for Internet rights. Most importantly, YouTube users no longer must fear for their privacy.

But this is certainly not the end of this case. Last weekend, two sources with knowledge of the negotiations between the companies told CNET News that Google was refusing to hand over to Viacom information about what videos YouTube employees have watched or uploaded to the site.

The sources said that the information could help Viacom prove that YouTube has turned a blind eye to the piracy on its site. Google is also likely to ask to see similar records about Viacom's employees. That might show that while Viacom's lawyers were demanding YouTube to remove it's videos, Viacom's marketing managers may have been among those that posted them.

The case is not scheduled to go to court until next year at the earliest.

Some of the more interesting legal wrangling left to go is Google's attempt to depose two high-profile Viacom employees: Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

[ewelch]

Too bad Google didn't stand up to China and not out a journalist. Something WAY more important than privacy of viewers of YouTube videos of stolen TV shows.

[someguy999]

I like how people think you should just straight up break the law. It wasn't their option in china... and they should have turned over the info in the Viacom case (they were ordered too and should have). Its just a matter of complying to a court order.

Remember this is a company who is all about making money... the days of their humanitarian college projects are behind them (much like the when they said they though paid ads were BS on the record and then a year later they started adwords), their a business now and going against the law costs unrecoverable amounts of money (just ask MS with their lost billions).

[t26l]

@ewelch Google didn't out the Chinese journalist, you are confusing them with Yahoo! Google just filters content from google.cn.

[jamalystic]

Please don't give Google any credit for standing up for users's right!Their 'no evil' policy is certainly history now!Why not do that for the millions of chinese users!As users we will always be at their mercy as reported by this expert's analysis:Viacom, Google/YouTube Flap Hits Slippery Slope(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=565&doc_id=158450&F_src=flftwo)

[wildbillc777]

Msg to Viacom and RIAA: Too late. I already cancelled my cable and destroyed all Viacom content. Haven't bought a CD or DVD in 2 years, and don't intend to.
Ciao baby, I won't miss you.

[Anysia]

I don't trust the promise of redacting. If I want to surf YouTube, I will use a proxy program. Here is the email I sent to Viacom:

I had to pick any category, but what I am contacting you about has nothing to do with Comedy Central.

What I view online isn't any business of yours. What I view on YouTube isn't any business of yours. All your posturing and trying to force YouTube to disclose who sees what when is make me use proxy software when I visit YouTube. You can rest assured I am not the only person doing this now or before, so your wanting to know user and IP addresses isn't going to give you true details. All your pressuring YouTube has done is made me shop more carefully for media, making sure I do NOT purchase something connected to Viacom. Talking with my wallet is the only way I can protest your actions, and I have encouraged others to do so as well.

[juggernt]

Let's stay on topic here, kids. Ultimately, the end-result of handing over anonymized data to Viacom is a fair & reasonable way to handle this. Kudos to YouTube for achieving this! But also... a message to all you old guard companies out there like Viacom. Anonymity & privacy is one of the distinctive appeals of the Internet (& while that is more illusory than many novices may think).. the value of the Internet, as a money-making medium as a whole is reduced every time personal user data is exposed. Viacom requesting IP addresses (which can specifically identify home-based users in millions of cases) (yes..I know about corporate proxies, blah..blah) is just PLAIN DUMB of Viacom and MORE Viacom users should put their money where their mouth is & cancel Viacom like Wildbillc777 (from another user comment) has done. You should NOT feel comfortable having Viacom as a provider of your cable Internet services.

[galacticgufus]

funny that google is so evil for censoring content in china , but that it ought to allow viacom to censor ours. government suppression and copy'right' government suppression are the same thing