Do you have an You Tube Account or have you ever watched a video on you tube? Then your privacy have been invaded by a multimedia corperation known as VIACOM.

They're sueing You Tube and have forced You Tube to give them your private information. What videos you have watched, how many times, what videos you have uploaded and they can even retrive those you deleted.

They also wanted your IP address wich can be used to track your real name and address. Due to public reactions of rage VIACOM did some changes.

Your IP adresse have been masked with a nummber that can't be traced to your ID. Viacom's lawyers agreed that You Tube could protect our privacy this way. However all information I've come by so far fails to say if this is an actual reversal of the verdict that entitles Viacom to our IP address as well. If it's not a reversal Viacom still have a court ruling that entitles them to your IP..

The masking it self is not 100% secure, tests show that you can indentify most users by secondary sources. Ever made a comment on You Tube? That's enough to pin a name to the masking code in many cases when holding the info Viacom have on you.

Viacom have said that they will not publish our information. They also claim they won't use it to sue any you tubers.
HOLD ON!!! If they're not going to sue you tubers for copyright infringements then their case is falling apart.
They demanded our information claiming they need it to track down infringers, but NOW they're not going to use this info to pursuit infringers?! Then why bother to get hold of our information in the first place?

They claim they need it to prove another point. That You Tube's popularity is a result of infringers uploading Viacom material.

I got hold of that information without having to steal every you tubers information. 80% of You Tube videos are user made, NON Viacom material. 8% is proffesional material uploaded by the rightfull owner and 12% is a potential copyright infringement.
This is public information and if I wanted to take an infringer a regulare You Tube search on say "Rambo" would show all I need to know in a splitt second.
88% of You Tube is not infringing on anything. Viacom have no reason for holding on to our information!

Another of Viacom's arguments for their legal actions against You Tube is that users uploading Viacom content videos cost them money.

Market research indicates that fan art and you tube spoofs encrease sales. Fan art is not fair use, but most of the entertainment industry doesn't act against it. SINCE IT STRENGTHENS their products popularity and sales.

12% is a POTENTIAL copyright infringement.
Not all 12% are Viacom products. Amongst these 12% at least 50% is a borderline case.
Meaning that if the user uploading a spoof ever was sued by Viacom the court would rule in favour of the you tuber.

Viacom can get hold of all the information they need to sue infringers without going through our private information. They don't intend to sue and have masked our ID with a weak protection. 88% of You Tube is innocent, the last remaining 12% is mostly in a grey area that would be ruled as fair use if ever brought up in court. That's why they don't bring it up in court when the damage is below 2500$. Most of these infringements encrease sales and popularity.

It all adds up to Viacom having a very weak case and leaving us robbed of our privacy.

Think about that the next time you buy a CD or DVD. Should you pay Viacom to browse through details about your private life that they don't need to know?

If so, support the following to sponsor viacom's invasion of your privacy:

Viacom International / Paramount Pictures /
Dream Works / Republic Pictures / MTV Films /
Nickelodeon Movies / Go Fish Pictures /
Comedy Central / LOGO / BET / Spike /
TV Land / Nick at Nite / Nickelodeon / Noggin / The N / Nick Jr. / TEENick /
MTV / VH1 / MTV2 / CMT / MHD /Palladia