Hulu must face privacy lawsuit, U.S. judge rules

Hulu has failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the video streaming service of illegally sharing users' viewing history with Facebook Inc and business metrics company comScore Inc. In San Francisco on Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler rejected Hulu's argument that viewers needed to show actual injury to recover damages, even if they qualified as "aggrieved" persons under a 1988 federal law protecting the privacy of video renters. Hulu had argued that the law "was not adopted to impose multi-billion dollar liability on the transmission of anonymous data where no one suffers any actual injury." Beeler, however, concluded that "the statute requires only injury in the form of a wrongful disclosure" before damages might be available. Hulu is a joint venture owned by Comcast Corp's NBCUniversal, 21st Century Fox Inc's Fox Broadcasting, and Walt Disney Co's ABC. Chief Executive Mike Hopkins said on December 18 Hulu will post $1 billion of revenue in 2013, up from $695 million in 2012.

via Tech News Headlines - Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/hulu-must-face-privacy-lawsuit-u-judge-rules-183252275--sector.html