A court ordered YouTube to release users’ names and IP addresses to Viacom as a part of the $1 billion lawsuit against both the video sharing site and parent company Google. Filed in 2006, the lawsuit accuses YouTube of not doing more to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled that if the company wanted to target individual users in its suit, more information than simply the username and IP address would be needed, despite criticism from online privacy advocates.
In a statement, Viacom argues that the information provided “will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google.”
