July 15th, 2008
Google to protect user identities, but not employees'
Viacom and Google came to an agreement over what data Google will be handing over after a judge’s ruling last week. Orignally, it was believed that Google would be forced to hand over personally identifiable information about the viewing habits of all YouTube users. Thankfully, the two companies came to a partial agreement that will protect your personal information.
Unfortunately, for Google employees, that agreement does not include them. Their legal strategy, from what people are saying, could revolve around the fact that those Google Employees have either uploaded or viewed copyrighted content — which is almost a certainty. If they can prove that this has happened in the past, there may be some wiggle room in the DMCA which currently protects internet service providers from lawsuits like this.
It will definitely be interesting to see how this all plays out, and what happens to YouTube if there is a ruling in favor of Viacom. Enter your predictions below!
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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