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The long lasting war between Viacom and Google(YouTube) seems to be over. Both parties have agreed upon a new law discarding the previous one, that was actually forcing Google to handover individual’s personal identification in the form of User IDs, IP addresses and a list of all YouTube Videos that have been so far viewed by number of users. The issue was supported by an ongoing $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit that Viacom had filed against Google, last year.
Viacom’s illegitimate offer of handing over all the uniquely identifiable data of YouTube viewers to a company was highly criticized by Google, as user’s trust is the fundamental brick of their success and this would lead in a major breakdown of user’s traffic from Google’s site. Google in its favour also added, that they have already taken measures to safeguard privacy. Whereas Viacom said that the pirated content at YouTube has gained more popularity and Google is not doing anything to protect the copyrighted content. Viacom’s long lasting argument and case had badly affected thousands of videos on YouTube.
Viacom had democratically changed its statement after an insurgence against the order by stating that they never asked Google to reveal personal info and concluded that they will never this info to sue users. While according to a new order, that has been filed recently, Google will substitute values such as User ID, IP Address and Visitor ID for anonymous while retaining uniqueness for each entry.
IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the undersigned
counsel of record:
1.Substituted Values: When producing data from the Logging Database pursuant to the Order, Defendants shall substitute values while preserving uniqueness for entries in the following fields: User ID, IP Address and Visitor ID. The parties shall agree as promptly as feasible on a specific protocol to govern this substitution whereby each unique value contained in these fields shall be assigned a correlative unique substituted value, and preexisting interdependencies shall be retained in the version of the data produced. Defendants shall promptly (no later than 7 business days after execution of this Stipulation) provide a proposed protocol for this substitution. Defendants agree to reasonably consult with Plaintiffs’ consultant if necessary to reach agreement on the protocol.
2.Non-Circumvention: The parties agree that they shall not engage in a efforts to circumvent the encryption utilized pursuant to Paragraph 1 this Stipulation. This Paragraph does not limit in any way any party’s rights under Paragraph 8 below.
3.Data Relating to Parties’ Viewing Activities: The parties do not agree whether the arrangements contained in Paragraph 1 should extend to records reflecting the business activities of the parties’ employees and agents, including whether the obligations are reciprocal. The parties do not intend for this Stipulation to resolve this issue. Defendants shall produce data from the Logging Database relating to the foregoing activities in anonymized form as provided in Paragraph 1. The parties will meet and
confer within 14 days of the execution of this Stipulation concerning records reflecting
the business activities of the parties’ employees and agents. If the parties cannot reach
agreement on this issue, any party may submit it to the court.
4.Defendants’ Use of Original Data: In connection with their defense of these lawsuits, Defendants, their counsel, and their outside experts and consultants shall not make use of any original versions of substituted data being produced from the Logging Database, unless and until original versions of that data have been produced to Plaintiffs.
5.Intent of the Parties: Each party stipulates that it shall not seek to preclude, in any aspect of this litigation, the use of the substituted data produced from the Logging Database pursuant to Paragraph 1, on grounds that the substituted data, in and of itself, allegedly constitutes or contains personally identifiable information.
6.Preservation: Nothing herein shall alter Defendants’ preservation obligations, including the preservation of the Logging Database.
7.Other Obligations Under Court Orders: Any substitution of information in accordance with the Stipulation shall not delay the parties’ production of material otherwise called for by the Court’s Orders.
8.Without Prejudice: This agreement shall be without prejudice to the parties’ rights to seek and object to further discovery on any topic.
Though , the new law does make sense as it will not reveal any personally identifiable information about Visitors that actually favours Google while Viacom will find it equally useless as this info would not help it to identify individuals viewing any particular video.
I think, Viacom should close this amaranthine rubbish that has been going on since last year. Viacom should get some life by focusing more on its content and by increasing its corporate model to boast its fidelity rather than targeting Internet giants like Google.
