The Viacom v. Google court case will, without a doubt, affect all Internet users. The question is to what extent.
Viacom has sued Google for $1 billion because of its Web site’s YouTube service, which allows users to post videos for the world to view without charge and without care to copyright. Viacom, the American media conglomerate with various worldwide ownerships of cable and television networks such as MTV, Comedy Central and BET, claims Google has not done enough to prevent and remove certain copyrighted, Viacom-owned content from YouTube.
Wired, the magazine and online periodical, reported that at the heart of the lawsuit is more than 160,000 clips posted on YouTube from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Colbert Report and other Viacom-owned programs.
Google has maintained no-fault, as they are a neutral party who just facilitates the upload and viewing of content. Under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Internet service providers are not directly responsible for the users’ actions but have to remove content when notified by the copyright holder. The question is if Google will be able to obtain this status for YouTube.
This provision in the law, while well-intended, is not feasible in YouTube’s case. Let’s say Viacom issues a message to Google requesting the removal of all Viacom’s content. With tens of millions of videos, some cut and edited to include only partially copyrighted content, total removal of all Viacom’s material is nearly impossible. YouTube has made steps by removing some content after posting, but Viacom claims it’s not enough.
On the lighter end of the scale, the court case, or an out-of-court settlement, could make YouTube a more restrictive environment. Posters might need prior approval before uploading a video or user accounts might suffer harsher penalties for uploading copyrighted material.
On the heavier side, the case could set a precedent that opens the door for liability against ISPs or other service-based firms who facilitate networks, which makes it possible for the users to break copyright. Such an event would change the Internet, as we know it. ISPs would not only provide users with Internet connection but also actively help enforce copyright laws.
With a recent development in the case last week, Google was ordered to hand over all of the usernames and IP addresses of users who watched copyrighted material. Viacom claimed that it needed the information to estimate how much of YouTube’s growth can be contributed to its copyrighted content. Such a move raised serious questions of user privacy.
Google has accumulated massive amounts of data on its users from its search engine, email and numerous free functions by logging the IP addresses of each user. Before the case, Google said the IP addresses could not be tracked to individual users, but this is not accurate.
Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said even records that do not include a user’s login name and IP address may be able to be associated with specific people.
Google is gaining so much information on its users that cases like this need to be watched closely to see who is seeing what we are seeing when we surf the Web.
Gilson, a business sophomore, can be reached via [email protected].
