VIDEO shaing website YouTube must handover records of each clip watched on the site to media giant Viacom (Video & Audio Communications).

The date, time and IP address (computer address) of each person who watched it must also be given after a US court ruling.

US District Court judge Louis Stanton granted Viacom access to the records as part of its ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and its subsidiary YouTube but the move could have major implications for online privacy around the world.

A "Logging" database records the user ID and IP address of the viewer, the date and time of the request and the ID of the clip, and includes details of videos embedded on websites other than YouTube.

Difficult

In response to Google's claim that providing the data would be too difficult, Judge Stanton said: "While the Logging database is large, all of its contents can be copied on to a few 'over-the-shelf' four-terabyte hard drives."

"The motion to compel production of all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website is granted."