Google keeps search code secret

Viacom told to go forth and multiply

A FEDERAL Judge has told Viacom that it cannot have access to Google's secret search code as part of the evidence needed for its $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the search outfit.

US District Judge Louis Stanton said it was a trade secret and could not be revealed without Google going down the gurgler.

He said that placing such a vital asset in the paws of the great unwashed merely to allay speculation was unfair.

The judge also refused to let Viacom's have a look under the bonnet of Google's Video Identification Tool, which helps notify Google of copyright infringement.

The judge did allow Viacom to take the records of every video watched by Youtube users, including their login names and IP addresses.

This means that anyone who posted a video on Youtube that Viacom thinks infringed its copyright could be taken to the cleaners.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called foul, saying that the ruling ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act and threatens to expose deeply private information. µ