14 DAY TRIAL // The copyright lawsuits filed against YouTube are well known so I guess a new lawsuit is not able to amaze somebody that likes to stay informed about the video service. This time, it is somehow different. Magnolia Pictures, a film studio that produced Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, demanded a US Court to order Google to provide information about the user that uploaded videos concerning its copyrighted movies. The Dallas federal court received the subpoena, allowing Google to provide the information by March 20.
"We don't expect to get valid user information. If we do, we will contact them and ask them what induced them to upload content they don't own," entrepreneur Mark Cuban said in an e-mail correspondence according to Reuters. "We cannot confirm that we have received a subpoena at this time, however Google complies with valid U.S. legal process, such as a valid court order or subpoena," a Google spokesman said in a statement. "As a matter of policy we do not publicly discuss legal matters," the same source added.
This is the second time when other company than Google demands YouTube to provide private information about a user that uploads videos on its service. In the past, Fox Television demanded YouTube to offer details about a user nicknamed ECOTtotal who uploaded pirated videos of its 24 and The Simpson before they were released in the US. YouTube accepted the subpoena and sent all the details about the user to Fox, helping the company to identify the software pirate.
The most known YouTube issue was the Viacom's demand that ordered the video-sharing service to remove almost 100.000 clips from the page because Google receives praises for its content without paying for it. Although an important amount of content was deleted from YouTube's database, Google's product is still the leader in its category.