YouTube Is More Important

Okay, I may have in the past promised I wasn't going to turn this blog into a clearinghouse for me to say things like, "Look at this news article, isn't it dumb," but frankly, there have been a number of occurrences in the news which I'd like to talk about and which can only be given proper context by a news article. Therefore, examine, if you will, this article. It's all about how a court has ruled that Google must turn over all of its YouTube logs to Viacom as part of their ongoing lawsuit. In particular:

The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.

Yep, that's right, if you've ever watched a video on YouTube (and who hasn't) your IP address has been stored by Google (this is disturbing enough for some people) and will now be shared with Viacom (and anyone Viacom shares it with). Sure, they're not supposed to do anything with it, and sure, they're claiming they will preserve your privacy, but since people have been able to steal information from other companies, it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that, during the transfer, some of this information was stolen by a third party. But that's not really what I'm worried about. You can probably steal my IP address right now if you're so inclined. I'm more worried about what is said later on in the story.

The US court declined Viacom's request that Google be forced to hand over the source code of YouTube, saying it was a "trade secret" that should not be disclosed.

But it said privacy concerns expressed by Google about handing over the log were "speculative".

Really? Yes, really. Apparently, the code that makes up YouTube, code which probably changes all the time and would hardly be impossible to duplicate, code which would be protected in the same way that your privacy is being protected, and would legally be unable to be used by Viacom for anything other than their lawsuit, is more valuable and important to the court than your privacy. Ponder that for a while.

I'm not a privacy nut. I don't keep my identity a closely-guarded secret, accessible only to myself and the guy who hoards my money as gold ingots at the center of the Earth. I'm probably just as ripe for identity theft as the rest of us (not that they'd get much out of my identity). And I don't really worry that Viacom, or indeed anyone else, has seen my IP address and viewing habits on YouTube (it would probably make for some interesting reading, since my viewing habits on YouTube consist of some pretty eclectic material, and no I'm not talking about pornography). But the fact that the court views the privacy of millions of people as less important that the privacy of a company just adds fuel to the argument that the law treats companies unfairly (well, in this case).

Add to it that we have laws saying that companies are protected from lawsuits because they broke the law in a way favored by the government, or companies are only punished for being monopolies if someone feels like it, or the myriad other ways I could mention, and you've got a case. Which I do. Think about it. That's all I ever really ask.