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March 9, 2007

Magnolia Pictures has subpoenaed Google to disclose the identities of people who uploaded Magnolia's copyrighted videos to both Google Video and YouTube.

The subpoena request was filed by Magnolia's counsel six weeks ago, and Google was ordered to respond on Feb. 20. The subpoena was filed in Texas federal district court on Tuesday, March 6.

It is reported that one of the videos includes a 20-minute portion of the documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." The other two videos referred to in the subpoena are no longer available.

It isn't clear at this point whether the videos were removed by Google.

Representatives at the search giant were not immediately available for comment. Google has stated previously that it responds to all takedown requests, and has asserted that it operates within the safe harbor protections of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

The subpoena makes no request that the videos be removed.

This isn't the first time Magnolia Pictures has taken legal action against Google. Magnolia Pictures filed another subpoena request in October of last year, ordering Google to remove the Enron documentary.

At that time, Jason Janego, Magnolia's head of legal affairs subpoenaed Google over the illicit video. "We get notices all the time of our films being online," he said. "It ranges from people who are fans of the film sending us an email, to our publicity marketing people."

Janego said Magnolia doesn't aggressively pursue copyright violators online, but when it's notified of a violation, it automatically issues a takedown request (DMCA).

"It's difficult to monitor this activity. Extremely difficult," Janego said.

Magnolia Pictures' subpoena is at least the second legal action taken against Google in 2007 concerning copyrighted videos.

Two months ago, Twentieth Century Fox filed a subpoena against YouTube, requesting the Web site be removed of all episode clips of "24" and "The Simpsons."

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Source: Google Watch