Aminology

So it looks like Viacom’s $1bn case against Google over Youtube is going to work against not only Google, but over Youtube users too, as Viacom will now be able to gain access to the names and IP addresses associated with Youtube viewers and uploaders that have ‘infringed’ upon their copyright.

While I strongly doubt Viacom is going to sue anyone over watching clips of the Daily Show on the site, I do think it’s a possibility that Viacom will go after Youtube account holders who have uploaded large amounts of video footage of programs owned by Viacom.

Even more worrying, is the problem this would cause video marketers, who employ tactics of mass downloading videos from the popular video sites, mass watermarking them with their own websites’ URLs, before mass uploading them to video sites again, including Youtube. And because of the scalability and automation involved in such an operation, the damage against individual video marketers could be severe, should Viacom choose to take action.

Let’s just hope they’ve been using proxies…