Google is currently facing an antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice. This is only the beginning, as Google’s legal worries seem endless with a US court today ordering them to immediately release information related to the videos broadcasted on YouTube.

>"Protection of intellectual property is a relevant practice that we all value from. The birth of the Internet has made it hard to prevent copyright infringement and also individual’s privacy from being encroached,"

The court order has been passed in relation to the allegations coming from Viacom of copyright infringement.

This information contains log-in user IDs, IP addresses and video clip details that will be given to Viacom in which digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has stated the ruling is a set back to privacy.

This decision affects all YouTube users and this will place their viewing habits under scrutiny.

Martin Warner, co-founder of Technology of Tomorrow 2008 (www.tot2008.com) and new media entrepreneur says that the issue is that the current copyright infringement is there to protect company’s intellectual property.

"Protection of intellectual property is a relevant practice that we all value from. The birth of the Internet has made it hard to prevent copyright infringement and also individual’s privacy from being encroached," Warner said.

"How do we protect people’s privacy unless the individual divulges it on sites such as social networking and what can be done to ensure companies don’t profiteer by hiding other business’ content in repackaged business models, like YouTube? If this means people’s information gets divulged, it is a risk individuals will most likely have to take."

"It is fair that Viacom is concerned about their content being copied or shared without permission, but it is wrong to assume other players won’t be concerned about copyright infringement."

"This will set an interesting precedent, other companies will come after YouTube (Google) and this will likely set a new direction of independent content, with other sites also being affected like MySpace, social networking sites and other file sharing websites," he said.