Spence,

Google have your data, you cannot delete it

;-((

welcome to the world of the open free internet

Steve, Warwick, UK

Trouble is, this has only just come to light. YouTube has been around for a long time. Why is it all of a sudden happening now?

Not Happy, Northampton, England

If you object to Viacom's heavy-handedness with our/your civil liberties, he's what some of you (who have the funds)...hit them in the wallet. Avoid purchasing anything involving Viacom...get rid of your stocks in the company, protest to advertisers who deal with viacom...really, put up or shut up.

NG, NY, USA

Can we, as users, sue Viacom for invasion of privacy if we haven't viewed or uploaded any "copyrighted" material? I think it seems fair

Shahil, Durban, South Africa

Ladies and Gents welcome to the new world, the world where the corporates and big business controls the world, us and everything.

Watch This Space and Tremble ...

Nicola Clubb, bournemouth, UK

"doris, london, "

The point is to work out how much copyrighted material is on the site.

If it's a company/school then they will be held responcible as they pay ISP for account, it's up to them to monitor there network access. If company can identify who done it then can present that.

Andrew, Newcastle, England

Common sense really - if B downloads a file provided by A of music recorded by Z which is copyrighted then infingemenmt takes places if payment is not made to Z- nothing to do with country, ISP etc and so simple to understand !!! why does everybody complicate such a simple matter !!!

Richard, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, N Wales

Don't most people use You-Tube to re-watch music videos and the best bits of tv shows? Media companies should use this to their advantage and set up their own You-Tube presence.

Luke, London, UK

I use Google for my emails, and it saves every single one of them. So should a company in the US take Google to court for some issue - I suppose Google could hand over all my emails too.

Nick, london,

This Judge does not know what he is unleashing here. This is another great blow to our privacy. Google should resist this at all costs.
What is the point of revealing source code if not to destroy Google market lead.

Barry, san anselmo, USA

If users stop using YouTube because of privacy concerns, Viacom will have far more to worry about. People will distribute content elsewhere, not through a monitored website where Viacom could report it. If videos come off the internet it'll be much harder to police.

An "own goal" in other words.

Donna, London,

We have entered the greatest age of non-privacy and complete Governmental control.The precedents are being set.

leon, Melbourne, Australia

New World Order. National Service for the youth next - Militarize the children. Then ID cards. We already got CCTV cameras everywhere.

Alex, Blackpool, UK

Oh come on,all the world gives out your name address,E mail etc etc,
They sell it,monitor and use it to get to you habits and money.
All your personal habits are known from credit reports to buying patterns.They even know where you are on your cell phone.

Larry, Boca Raton, USA

So, since when did an American judge have any right to order Google to reveal my IP address? I'm not American, therefore that judge does not have the right to violate my privacy.

And there's me thinking that Britain was oppressive.

Lucy, Liverpool, England

Good, it is time time to put these electronic thieves behind bars, does anyone seriously believe anything is free?

Justin, Norwich, England

I'm overreacting, but I deleted my account in light of this.

I don't trust Google with my data.

Spence, Colchester,

Whether ip addresses are used to trace users, households, schools or businesses or not, it still doesn't make it right.
The users have a right to privacy and didn't sign a consent form relinquishing those rights when they signed up to google.

doris, london,

Tom, they are refereing to the IP assigned to your by your ISP. Static or not, logs are kept of the IP's and who they relate to.

It doesn't matter what computer was used, its your account with your ISP.

It's shocking to say the least!

What about UK user's? There info also?

We will win!!!

Andrew, Newcastle, England

Will they be handing out the data for all YouTube users around the world or just the US, since this is a US lawsuit do they have the right to demand they hand over info on other people from another country?

Michael, Wrexham, United Kingdom

I do not see how viewing infomation is necesary here. I can understand uploading copywrite videos being illegal, but watching them on what is essentially a free video channel can surely not be classed as illegal.

Rob, Singapore,

Now we don't only have to worry about "Big Brother" (government) taking away are civil liberties, privacy, and the right to be left alone we have to worry about Corporations. I mean the government doesn't even have to spy on their citizens anymore, Corporate America does it for them!!!

Alan Curtis Montgomery, Mesa, AZ, USA

Tom, you are correct in that the gateway router has an IP address the local area network but each individual device has a seperate local IP address as well as a seperate Wide Area Network IP address if their connected to the web. This IP address even if not static can be traced back to your comp!!!

Alan Curtis Montgomery, Mesa, AZ, USA

Viacom is a new age bully! Also, what a bad ruling delivered by the judge? This can give rise to an extremely dangerous precedent which will hugely violate the privacy rights of individuals in future! Internet is becoming a scary place!

Serenity, Birmingham, UK

if commercial copanies are so against youtube then they should stop using youtube as an advertising tool for their own programmes. Viacom and CBS routinely does this and i think this lawsuit makes them a bit two faced and hypocritical.

rob, liverpool,

Viacom just wants the data, and they're doing it through the court.

Very low.

Andrei Gonzales, Manila, Philippines

If you think Google has enough money to buy Viacom your very mistaken. If companys start handing out viewing habbits of site users then people will stop using the service. Its in Googles interest to fight this.

Grant Gray-Brown, St. Andrews, Scotland

The few out way the many as always.
Big company’s rights more important than 1 persons but they forget the 1 person makes up the masses.
Protect our rights first would be nice after all I thought it was the law.
Ask for all info on them who have committed a crime but not those who haven’t

nick, mansfield, england

when the litigation is over, maybe Viacom can afford to buy Google

Harry, London,

Privacy rights! There is no such thing. We aren't living in a vacuum: we are community creatures. A right to family intimacy, yes, but privacy is in isolation is to protect evil.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

Why doesn't Google just buy Viacom?

David Masu, Zürich,

The issue boils down to one fundamental flaw, Google don't control what's uploaded onto youtube (apart from file size) and therefore don't accept responsibility for it.
Nevertheless. they're responsible as they're hosting videos which contravene copyright laws. They are accountable as it's a crime!

Andrew Corr, Burton On Trent, Staffs

Big brother is watching...

sam, toronto,

Oh for the love of God. Someone wants to watch a few video's. If the producers actually made it available youtube wouldn't exist.
Another missed boat by the entertainment industry attracting lawsuits. I don't pirate music - don't agree with it - but I've stopped buying CD's because of the BMI.

James, Glasgow,

I fail to see the link between combating piracy and exposing everyone's viewing habit. This is about Google not doing enough to block contents, not how individual spend their time on YouTube.

Next thing you know, all ISP will be required to hand over data logs to records companies.

Chris, Cambridge,

"An IP address identifies individual computers connected to the internet"

This is an incorrect statement. An IP address identifies the gateway router that accesses the internet, behind which can sit any number of users, i.e. companies, schools, cafes, home wi-fi networks.

Tom, London,