Fox subpoenas YouTube after "24" clips posted

[Brett_Tabke]

Reuters [today.reuters.com]:

20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena Wednesday demanding the Google-owned viral video site disclose the identity of a user who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of primetime series "24" and "The Simpsons."

The "24" episodes in question actually appeared on YouTube prior to their primetime January 14 premiere on the Fox broadcast network, which spread four hourlong episodes of the hit drama over two consecutive nights. Fox became aware the episodes were on YouTube on January 8, according to the subpoena.

[Fiver]

I thought the 10 minute cap was in effect, how did the 'entire episode' get posted?

the truth of the matter is that these episodes got leaked in high quality to bittorrent and file-sharing sites a week ahead of time... in my mind it was inevitable that parts of it at least would end up on youtube.

time ol' question - where does the blame lie, with the original leaker, or with the subsequent distributors...

a little from column a, a little from column b I guess.

I know from having gone through the youtube upload process personally, there is no identifying information required - and unless they're capturing mac addresses (which could be fake) or some fun intel-style unique cpu identifier, how can they find people who have covered their tracks? I doubt they can.

[johnser]

IP

[Fiver]

ummm, 'cover their tracks'....

there are a lot of wireless networks out there that have no association with the users.

[BillyS]

YouTube = Problems for Google

[Rugles]

>>>unless they're capturing mac addresses (which could be fake) or some fun intel-style unique cpu identifier

Well that will identify the computer, how are they going to finger the person?

Especially if the computer was in a public place.

[Leosghost]

Murdock is way more clever and experienced than the people running Google..while they were signing the deal for hispace the devil from down under was getting ready to bite their ass first chance he got ..and youtubé them ..

in corporate affairs ..and media savvy ..he ..on his own ..without his "suits" ..can run rings around their "suits" ..even while they are in the same bedspace ..

Mr Murdock is not going to be gentle in this relationship ..it's not his style ..google may find the experiences painfull from time to time ..they may have to just smile on the outside and roll over and take it from time to time ..

[xalex]

Or Google could do some bad data refresh on Murdoch empire. Or better yet smart price from time to time. Come to think of it, I don't see myspace much in SERP.

[oodlum]

So... when myspace profiles incorporate YouTube videos that violate Fox copyright?

[Fiver]

>>>unless they're capturing mac addresses (which could be fake) or some fun intel-style unique cpu identifier

Well that will identify the computer, how are they going to finger the person?

Especially if the computer was in a public place.

If they can identify the computer they can probably find out when it was sold, where, and to who. If it was used in a crime I'm sure they could legally find out the name on the debit or credit card used to buy it. It's been done.

a laptop bought for cash is much less traceable, but that much rarer.