A judge ruled this week that Google must turn over personal records of YouTube users to Viacom. The personal details contain users’ names and IP addresses. Viacom’s intentions are to get an access to user information in order to identify YouTube users who are committing copyright infringement.

Early this year Viacom accused YouTube and parent company Google of “massive intentional copyright infringement” and was seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

Viacom in their complaint stated that they had identified more than 150,000 unauthorized clips of their copyrighted programming on YouTube that had been viewed an astounding 1.5 billion times.

“YouTube appropriates the value of creative content on a massive scale for YouTube’s benefit without payment or license,” Viacom said in its complaint. “YouTube’s brazen disregard of the intellectual-property laws fundamentally threatens not just plaintiffs but the economic underpinnings of one of the most important sectors of the United States economy.”

In response to Viacom legal action Google said “By seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for internet communications, Viacom’s complaint threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment, and political and artistic expression”.

Viacom originally wanted access to the Google source code that YouTube uses for search - the code for identifying repeat copyright infringement uploads and Google’s advertising database schema. Those requests were denied by the court.

Viacom, an entertainment giant that owns Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks and Paramount Vantage, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Films.

For more information visit guardian.co.uk