Viacom is at it again. And this time they have the court’s backing. Google has been ordered to hand over YouTube users’ private data. TechCrunch says Viacom wants to use the information to find ordinary Joe’s to sue. I don’t think so.

I think Viacom will see it more as a marketing opportunity. Once the cold blows off and dissipates from the sinister news they will likely want to use the information for marketing purposes, which would be far worse than trying to sue YouTube users. If the court does get away with forcing Google to sell out its users to Viacom there should be a stipulation that Viacom cannot use the information for anything other than determining that there were in fact users who watched their copyrighted videos. But the more pressing issue is the privacy of users altogether.

There is no reason to make YouTube user privacy information available to Viacom or the public. The court should instead allow the information to be used in discovery and with the stipulation that none of the information can be used beyond the purview of use within this lawsuit and that none of it will be made public. But to be totally honest, I hope Viacom loses its pants off.