The Day the Video Died

This is the day video died!

This is indeed very scary and troubling! The court had supported Viacom and asked YouTube to throw privacy out of the door and hand over terabytes of logs on a golden platter. YouTube in its defense is suggesting that

"IP addresses identify a computer, not the person using it. It's not possible to determine your identity solely based on your IP address."

Except that if they are going to hand over the IP address AND the username --  isnt that sufficient to almost uniquely identify a user? Firstly, why on earth does Viacom need the username and IP address "to determine general viewing practices"? They can do just as well if the usernames are hashed appropriately and IP address masked or mapped to reveal only geographical association.

What stops Viacom from suing individual users? I am not sure if the excuse:

Oh! that was not me... Errr! There was a party at my apartment and .... errr... well.... ummm... no no! it wasnt me.... my roommate did it!

Is gonna gel particularly well with Viacom's lawyers. Well, if Viacom does indeed drag individual users to court, I would be rather inclined to suing YouTube on this since there is really no way for me as an end user to say if a video on their server, that THEIR recommendation engine is suggesting to me is indeed a copyright violation. Watching a video does not indicate infringement.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert please rescue us from this madness!