YouTube cannot be forced to provide detailed private information from copyright-infringing uploaders. This follows from a ruling by the highest European court.
This concerns data from users who put films on the internet that are subject to copyrights.
Once a film is uploaded against an online platform, such as YouTube, against the rules, the company may only provide the perpetrator’s postal address.
However, under European law, no other data may be shared, such as the user’s email address, IP address or telephone number.
The verdict was made in a German lawsuit in which the rights owners of the films Scary Movie 5 and Parker were chasing data from three users who uploaded the films in 2013 and 2014.
The owner had asked YouTube for emails, phone numbers and IP addresses of those users.
