Louis L. Stanton

Louis L. Stanton (born 1927 in New York City) is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Stanton received a B.A. from Yale University in 1950, a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law in 1955, and an LL.B from University of Virginia School of Law in 1955. He was nominated to the court by Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1985, to a seat vacated by Henry F. Werker, confirmed by the Senate on July 16, 1985, and received his commission on July 18, 1985. He assumed senior status on October 1, 1996.

Currently(July, 2008), Judge Stanton has before his court a case wherein Viacom seeks compensatory damages from Google. Viacom alleges copyright infringement by users of Google's Youtube service by insertion of excerpts from Viacom programming such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "SpongeBob SquarePants". In response to a formal discovery Motion, Judge Stanton ordered Google to provide Viacom with YouTube user data and has received criticism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. An attorney for the organization has accused the court of "ignoring the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act" [cite web | url=http://www.appscout.com/2008/07/judge_google_must_hand_over_yo_1.php | title=Judge: Google Must Hand Over YouTube User Histories to Viacom | publisher=Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings | work=Appscout | first=Chloe | last=Albanesius | date=2008-07-03 | accessdate=2008-07-03 ] [cite web | url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFJIDFx4LzK1pGKWT0NpWgkN-6mQD91MIVO00 | title=Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs | publisher=The Associated Press | first=Anick | last=Jesdanun | date=2008-07-02 | accessdate=2008-07-03 ]

Judge Stanton has directed Google/YouTube to provide Viacom with end user log-in/ID names, Internet protocol (IP) addresses, and video clip details (totaling more than 12 terabytes of data). The judgment was criticized by Google and privacy advocates who point out that the ruling ignores the protection of the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA - U.S. Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 121, § 2710-11) which was created to prevent such personal information being released without the permission of the subject. Stanton held that because Youtube is not a "video tape service provider" as defined in the referenced act, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 121, § 2710-11 does not apply. However, wording of § 2710, def. a-4 arguably applies to any commercial distributor of audio visual material, in which case an overturn of Stanton's ruling could reasonably be anticipated upon appeal. The privacy advocate Simon Davies has commented that confidential YouTube usage data for millions of individuals is threatened. Judge Stanton did, however, deny the formal discovery Demand by Viacom for secret source code used for YouTube video searches and the Viacom Demand for Google to provide access to videos YouTube users store in private YouTube files." [Cite news | title = Judge orders Google to give YouTube user data to Viacom | date = 2008-07-04 | publisher = Agence France-Presse | url = http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvFPgT3MNrzaN7r-Y37eFI-qv4bA] [Cite news | title = Google must divulge YouTube Log | date = 2008-07-03 | publisher = BBC News | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7488009.stm]

References

External links

* [http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2274 Profile at the Federal Judicial Center]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/technology/04youtube.html?hp NY Times: Judge orders Google to turn over YouTube records]