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YouTube Hands Over User Info To Fox

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the their-tube dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Tech Crunch has an article about YouTube identifying and handing over a user's information after a request from Fox. 'Three weeks after receiving a subpoena from the U.S. District Court in Northern California, YouTube has reportedly identified a user accused by 20th Century Fox Television of uploading episodes of the show 24 a week prior to their running on television. That user, named ECOTtotal, is also alleged to have uploaded 12 episodes of The Simpsons, some quite old. Apparently Google and YouTube were willing and able to identify the owner of the username ECOTtotal, according to a report on InternetNews.com.'"

9 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Willing and able by ShaunC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Apparently Google and YouTube were willing" ... to comply with a subpoena from a US District Court. I think most companies would do the same thing.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
    1. Re:Willing and able by Chelloveck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, but "Google Complies With The Law" doesn't make as good a headline...

      --
      Chelloveck
      I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
    2. Re:Willing and able by Dog-Cow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Outside of privacy-related websites, there are none that promise privacy. At best, they will claim not to give/sell your information to others (read: spammers), but to expect anyone to promise to disobey the law to protect identity is ludicrous.

    3. Re:Willing and able by rossz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The difference was the RIAA wants to go on random fishing expeditions, hoping to find "something". Sometimes they don't even bother with that and make random ass, more often wrong that right, guesses.

      In the case of Fox and YouTube, they were looking for the one person who uploaded very specific videos.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    4. Re:Willing and able by teal_ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hrm, that's a valid point of view actually, I guess I was wrong. Thanks!

    5. Re:Willing and able by rossz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ah, shit. I was able to convince someone of my point of view on slashdot! That's a sign of the apocalypse! WE'RE DOOMED!!!

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      -- Will program for bandwidth
  2. Willing to identify? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they were subpoenaed, they didn't have much choice. I hate the MPAA/RIAA/Studios as much as the next guy, but neither Fox or YouTube seem unrealistic here.

  3. Re:Google by krotkruton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    RRRRRight. So let's say you see a guy get robbed in the street and can identify the robber. The police find out you witnessed the robbery and subpeona you to appear as a witness. Are you evil for giving up the identity of the robber?

    I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that whoever uploaded this video early was breaking some law or another. How is it evil to turn him in, especially if your it states in your privacy policy that you will comply with law enforcement? If they had refused to hand over the information, we'd probably be getting people complaining about how Google is aiding and concealing criminals.

    A sarcastic "Don't be evil" is not an insightful (much less thoughtful, intelligent, or unique) response to every single action Google takes for the rest of eternity.

  4. Re:It was only a matter of time by roger6106 · · Score: 5, Informative

    A previous post

    The full DVD of the first four episodes was ALL OVER Usenet on the 7th.

    Thousands of people DLed that, and one guy encoded it for submission to YouTube.

    No insider job here.