Via-late-com

So, can anyone at Viacom explain why, in the pursuit of people who have shared what they claim is their material on YouTube, they require to know the user name, IP address and details of every video watched by anyone anywhere in the world?

More to the point, how can Viacom reassure me that the data about what videos I have watched are going to be kept safe?

It seems a little unfair that an American judge can violate our privacy in the UK for no actual reason, so we're sending off a polite letter to a senior person in the UK branches of Viacom, inviting them to use their influence on their parent company to save Viacom from getting a reputation for being a heavy-handed organisation with no respect for individual privacy.

Nick Bampton - nick.bampton@viacombrandsolutions.co.uk - is the managing director of Viacom Brand Solutions and, you hope, in a position to have a gentle word.

If you want to complain direct to Viacom in the US, their contact form actually insists that you relate your comment to one of their networks - Viacom, it seems, believes we will all have a relationship with one of its channels. Perhaps that's why it can't conceive of our online activity having absolutely nothing to do with them.