Well, if you've ever watched a YouTube video Viacom will soon know which one you watched and who you are, your login and IP address.

Their currently suing Google after finding clips of their shows on the site and things have turned nasty in a move the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called a "set-back to privacy rights" and "overreaching".

Amazingly this isn't locked in to who uploaded or viewed their copyrighted clips but everything on YouTube.

I thought the majority of companies had taken the logical line when it came to video sharing, most music companies have their own logins and then get to pound us with adverts.

They even have identifiers now that recognise songs in videos and put the ads in automatically, my last Bloscars vid had ads because it was recognised as Mika, they didn't mind me using it, as long as the ads were there.

I'd also argue that for things like TV shows, will Viacom's profits be hindered... or helped by this?

Personally I've seen clips on YouTube that have prompted me buying DVDs, I've seen clips that have made me watch shows.

With the limited length of YouTube clips do they really think you'll be bored enough to watch an entire show in short clips?

But here we are, Viacom are suing, the Premier League are trying for a class action suit because of footy highlights and it's no longer something the big companies are fighting over, now it's personal...

It's interesting this won't happen right now because of various complaints by privacy companies and Google themselves who are arguing the ruling...

What concerns me is this opens a door, they don't know how long you viewed a clip for, maybe you just skipped past it while stumbling or surfing, they just know you watched it...

I find it hard to believe it'll be TOO problematic as, to be fair, are they REALLY going to trace even the 1.5 billion IP addresses they sa have viewed their copyrighted clips? I'd suggest no.

But it opens an interesting gateway if it goes ahead. We often surf not thinking we're leaving indelible footprints in the way of our IP addresses, does this open up a way for companies everywhere to ask for a list of them at any grievance?

It'll probably come to nothing but I find it a little concerning.