In the latest turn in Viacom’s copyright infringement suit against YouTube and parent company Google, a federal judge ruled that Google must hand over YouTube users’ IP addresses and user names, plus a history of videos they’ve viewed. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation stills sees the ruling as a blow to user privacy.

Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks, requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular online video service and its deep-pocketed parent, Google.

Still, the judge’s order, which was made public late Wednesday, renewed concerns among privacy advocates that Internet companies like Google are collecting unprecedented amounts of private information that could be misused or fall unexpectedly into the hands of third parties.

Civil rights groups were quick to give their opinion on the case. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a release that the Judge’s decision will violate user privacy and violate the federal Video Privacy Protection Act.

“The Court’s erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube,” said the EFF.

“We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.”

Source: The New York Times

TorrentSpy, the File sharing site, has been ordered to pay a $110 million fine for copyright infringement by a federal judge in Los Angeles. MPAA accuses TorrentSpy for concealing evidence.

“This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of sites. The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders,” said MPAA’s Dan Glickman.

TorrentSpy utilised a legitimate file-sharing technology called BitTorrent. It makes it easier to exchange large files over the Internet without having to rely on central servers, with individual users sending and sharing bits of files.

In 2006 TorrentSpy was more popular than any other BitTorrent site, but this changed quickly in August 2007, when a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to log all user data. The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities, and hand these over to the MPAA.

TorrentSpy shut down on 24 March and the website now has a message saying it has closed as “the ultimate method of privacy protection”.

Source: TorentFreak