Freaky Frugalite

Yesssssssssssssss! This is such good news that it deserves to be in a post. The other day, I lamented that Viacom was suing YouTube (owned by Google) because YouTube users have been uploading videos that breached “copyright laws.” A NY judge (darn those NY judges, always making trouble, grr!) ruled that Viacom can meddle with YouTube’s logs to obtain the login names, IP addresses, and “viewing habits” of YouTube users.

Well, today in my comments, Andy notified me of a new development:

Google wins agreement to anonymise YouTube logs

Google claims it had now agreed to provide plaintiffs’ attorneys with a version of a massive viewership database that blanks out YouTube usernames and IP addresses that could be used to identify individual video watchers.

“We have reached agreement with Viacom and the class action group [led by the English Football Assocation],” Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes claims. “They have agreed to let us anonymise YouTube user data.”

Hurray! Another score for the little guy! Thanks for letting me know, Andy.

Related posts:

1. YouTube is Dead
2. Google: We’d Never Do That! Even Though It Said We Would
3. Google Goes Pay-Per-Post