Fox's Piracy Czar Subpoenas YouTube over Pirated "24" and "Simpsons" Episodes
D'oh! Twentieth Century Fox has subpoenaed YouTube to reveal the identity of users who uploaded four episodes of the TV series "24" and twelve episodes of "The Simpsons," Google Watch has learned. The subpoena reads, in part:
YouTube declined to comment. A phone call to Fox's legal representation was not returned. The subpoena includes the testimony of Jane Sunderland, vice president of content protection and anti-piracy for the Fox Entertainment Group. Sunderland's portion of the subpoena, which is her personal testimony that the infringing activity is occurring, says that Fox has been unable to determine on their own who has been uploading the Works. The uploaded Works are also causing Fox irreparable harm (standard legal language). Sunderland also testifies that Fox sent an official letter to YouTube on January 8. Although I haven't been in touch with News Corp yet, I assume YouTube didn't remove the videos promptly enough, hence the official subpoena. A quick search on YouTube only revealed trailers for "24," although given how poorly the site's search function works some videos may yet exist. There are several Simpsons excerpts available, though I didn't see any full episodes. Update: Andrew Wallenstein and Carl DiOrio at The Hollywood Reporter have more details about the subpoena, including the YouTube user's name (ECOTotal) and that a subpoena was also served to a site called LiveDigital. |


Comments (7)
Does this surprise anyone anymore?
Posted by Andy Wendt | January 25, 2007 2:54 PM
YouTube is how I catch up on eps I have missed. Otherwise I would lose interest in the show, and then advertisers could not market to me. Besides, these are network programs. Anyone can TiVo or record these shows--it's not like the YouTuber is making any money. This is counter-productive.
Posted by desordre remplir | January 25, 2007 5:48 PM
Okay, I understand about Fox wanting infomation on the user, but don't they understand that the name nd any information could FAKE? People list fake names for membersips online all of time, and the nme that is listed under the username may be fase. Fox is just wanting to play a ame of find the needle in a haystack. They ma never find out the person behind the uploaded episodes....
Posted by Dragon of Death | January 25, 2007 8:56 PM
my question is simple, how is the person uploading episodes that didn't come on yet?
Also:
the person gets thier IP traked by the last computer they used and then they trace the IP to the computer and were its at, thats one way to find him/her.
Also:
you need to verify your email and if the above doesnt work then can go to yahoo or google or msn and get the IP from them.
by the waym i faked my email posting this :)
Posted by Nonimes | January 26, 2007 1:10 PM
FYI, the link within the update contains a typo, and isn't working. The Hollywood Reporter's story can be found here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3i8e461f30b83c62d9cc5936ca96a31154
Posted by t.a.m.s.y. | January 26, 2007 3:18 PM
actually, i downloaded the 24 videos before it was aired as well, and i upload small segments of it on to youtube
but it was deleted within a day
Posted by blag | January 26, 2007 9:27 PM
Fucking hilarious. Well, hopefully if he was smart enough to get the episode before they aired, he was smart enough not you use his own computer to upload they file. This is why smart folks torrent shit.
Posted by BoLo | January 27, 2007 1:41 PM