A few days back, YouTube was ordered to give Viacom its user log records; a tidal wave of stupefaction started washing off the Internet scenery, as user privacy issues have been brought up by the decision. It has been said however that the situation is not that problematic, as only history logs will be handed out to Viacom.

The lawsuit filed by Viacom over one year ago is built on charges that YouTube had infringed upon the copyrights held by the claimant. Viacom’s accusations that Google does "little or nothing" to stop illegal material on YouTube are not very accurate. Google has removed numerous clips since it purchased YouTube at a price of $1.6 billion.

Google said its actions are in perfect accordance with the terms found in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which protects service providers if they act swiftly in cases of reported copyright infringement. Viacom’s attitude is very offensive; it defined YouTube as an "explosion of copyright infringement" online.

More than 150,000 shows owned by Viacom appeared on YouTube in April alone, including MTV Unplugged and South Park. Internet users have watched them for "an astounding 1.5 billion times" on today’s most popular video sharing website.

The one billion case could go either way; while most people expect an out-of-court settlement, Google is quite confident in a victory.