On Tuesday, July 1, 2008, Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google, YouTube’s parent, to turn over a database of YouTube usernames. The order also requests the viewing habits and computer addresses of YouTube’s users. Viacom’s request is part of a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit.

Since the ruling, various groups and privacy advocates have been extremely vocal. Viacom stated that this information is needed solely to demonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of its case against YouTube. Though a Viacom spokesperson stated, “Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user,” this assurance has done little to assure privacy advocates.

YouTube was founded less than 3 years ago and acquired by Google, in October 2006, for $1.65 billion dollars. Just as many corporations and institutions have accepted the evolution of media, could this be the beginning of YouTube’s demise and that of other social media sharing sites? How will this affect other social media platforms?

Article Tags: Court Rulings | Media Sharing | Privacy | social media | User Content

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