Fox was not too happy when it found out that unaired episodes of The Simpsons and 24 were placed on YouTube. The complete 4 episode season premiere and 12 episodes of the Simpsons were uploaded to YouTube by “ECOtotal” - a member of the site.

Fox quickly contacted Google (YouTube’s owner) and they quickly took down the videos. However, Fox has subpoenaed YouTube to give them the information of the “ECOtotal” so that they can legally go after this person as they see fit.

It will be interesting to see if YouTube does give up the information of the user as it has privacy policies in place that would limit how much information they give out without a subpoena. However, Fox has gone the legal route and if it wins YouTube could be forced to spill the information.

So, for users out there, be careful that what you are posting isn’t copyrighted material. They might be big companies, but they also have lots of cash to pay lawyers to come after you. This entangles Google into another legal mess, and there will probably be more coming.

[via maltaStar]