Why Are People Being Sent To Jail For Unlocking A Mobile Phone?

Turns Out Viacom Is Really Interested In What Google Employees Are Uploading/Viewing On YouTube

from the Google-janitors-are-supposed-to-know-copyright-laws dept

Mon, Jul 14th 2008 6:41am — Mike Masnick

With all the fuss over a court telling Google it needs to give Viacom its log files, Google and Viacom have been discussing ways to hand over the data and retain anonymity (not an easy task). However, apparently one key point is that Viacom is most interested in finding out what Google employees were uploading and viewing on YouTube. That's an interesting, if sneaky, strategy, as in theory Viacom could use that to try to prove that Google employees "knew" that certain content was infringing, which potentially could remove some DMCA safe harbors. However, that would be a huge stretch in terms of the meaning of the law. If anything, this move shows how much Viacom's case appears to be based on grasping at straws. If the best it can do is try to show that some Google employees viewed or uploaded infringing material, that's a pretty weak case -- rather than focusing on the fundamental issue of how much responsibility Google has over the content users upload.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, employees, ip address, privacy, usernames
Companies: google, viacom, youtube

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Mustached Potato, 14 Jul 2008 @ 7:29am

How dumb
The whole thing is just stupid.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Blue Basketcase, 14 Jul 2008 @ 7:41am

Makes good TV!
Oh, the Drama!

Please let us know when this will be turned into a made-for-tv special! Who is playing the old geezer that runs Viacom? I have a suggestion-Jack Nicholson should be casted for the part!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Roger W, 14 Jul 2008 @ 7:54am

Monkey See, Monkey Do
If Viacom is worried of Google Employees Infringing, it makes you wonder where they got that idea. Did Viacom Employees illegally upload videos to YouTube?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2008 @ 8:20am

Its understandable that Viacom might be digging for information that would prove that Google was systematically, as a business practice, uploading Viacom's content to increase revenues.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hoeppner, 14 Jul 2008 @ 8:23am

Viacom employees upload the bestest stuff.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sublimemm, 14 Jul 2008 @ 8:23am

Re: Revenues
YouTube doesn't have revenues.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Abdul, 14 Jul 2008 @ 8:35am

Re: Makes good TV!
You are spot on!It will definitely be a thrilling TV series. Each party is now claiming some form of innocense and ordinary folks like us are left wondering which party is really culpable. Was the judge that made this ruling knowlegeable about the issue involve in this saga as expalined in this expert's analysis of the matter: Viacom, Google/YouTube Flap Hits Slippery Slope(http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=565&doc_id=158450&F_src=flftwo)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ragaboo, 14 Jul 2008 @ 8:43am

Re: Re: Revenues
Youtube doesn't have revenues? Am I misunderstanding the word? What is the money they get from the ads that show alongside the videos called? I figured that would be called "ad revenue."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Annoyed with the whole industry, 14 Jul 2008 @ 9:16am

Instead of worrying that someone put a clip of a tv show on there, they should be thanking them for giving exposure for their product. I never watched the john stewart show until somebody emailed me a link to clip, I though it was funny and started watching the show. Instead they likely now want to charge for downloading show clips, which means I won;t pay and will not watch anything they put out.

makes me want to boycott all their products for being such greedy morons.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Allen, 14 Jul 2008 @ 9:22am

Re: Monkey See, Monkey Do
I have said this for months Viacom people upload to YT probably on orders, it explains how some stuff is outtakes or footage not used.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PRMan, 14 Jul 2008 @ 10:34am

Watching?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PRMan, 14 Jul 2008 @ 10:35am

Watching?
Wouldn't it stand to reason that they might be viewing content to see if it is infringing?

Uploading I could understand, but watching?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2008 @ 10:56am

Re: Watching?
That's kind of the point, though: if a YouTube techie watched a clip that was copyrighted, then Google loses the defense that they didn't know. That is, they left it up intentionally even when they knew it was infringing.

But has been noted before, there's no real good way to tell the difference between pirated content and content that was posted legitamately. also, just because an employee did know a clip was infringing, that doesn't mean that the employee told the rest of the corporation or took actions they should have to have the clip removed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2008 @ 11:26am

who fucking cares
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Liquid, 14 Jul 2008 @ 12:09pm

Re:
Obviously you don't.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wasnt me, 14 Jul 2008 @ 12:18pm

even if a google / youtube employee watched an infringing video how would they know it was infringing if Viacom had not sent a take down notice concerning it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]