Reconsider Privacy Ruling in Viacom Vs. YouTube/Google

To: Hon. Judge Louis L Stanton
U.S. District Court Judge
United States Courthouse
500 Pearl St., Room 2250
New York, NY 10007


We the undersigned are users of the web, including YouTube.com, who are concerned about privacy issues, and the safeguarding of our private information online. We have been especially troubled by your recent ruling in Viacom Vs. YouTube/Google ordering YouTube/Google to release complete viewing logs of every video posted on YouTube since its launch, approximately three years ago, including username and IP address information. (NY Times: http://tinyurl.com/5td7hr).

While we recognize that Viacom may have an interest in the identities of those who have posted videos that infringe on their copyrights, we fail to grasp how viewer information on non-infringing videos is relevant to their case. Further, we find that this is an invasion into our privacy, and a violation of our Fourth Amendment right to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures."

We have freely chosen to grant YouTube/Google a limited use of our personal information in exchange for our use of the site. We have not granted any such permission to Viacom, and do not wish our usernames and IP addresses to be released to them without just cause.

Therefore, we call upon you, in your role as a guardian of the Constitution, to reconsider your ruling, and re-issue a more limited ruling, pertaining only to the videos which have broken copyright laws, and only including user data that is vital to Viacom's legal pursuits.