Stanton was the judge in the lawsuit Viacom Int'l, Inc.v. YouTube, Inc., in which Viacom sued YouTube alleging direct and indirect copyright infringement of Viacom's copyrighted works. In response to a formal motion to compel discovery, Stanton ordered Google to provide Viacom with YouTube user data. This decision received criticism from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and privacy advocates.[3] An attorney for the EFF has accused the court of "ignoring the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act."[4] Stanton denied Viacom's motion to reveal the proprietary source code used for YouTube video searches, as well as the Viacom motion to compel Google to provide access to privately stored YouTube videos.[5][6] Ultimately the companies agreed to anonymize all user data other than that of the defendants' and plaintiffs' employees.[7] In 2010, and in 2013, Stanton ruled in Google's favor in a motion for summary judgment.[8]
In another case Stanton ruled to dismiss the case of the Federal Trade Commission and New York attorney general against Quincy Bioscience of Madison, Wisconsin. Quincy was accused of saying that its Prevagen dietary supplement advertising claims were misleading. His ruling was overturned and the case was returned to the lower court.[10]
In 2021, Stanton ruled that Locast, a streaming non-profit, must cease online streamed redistribution of live local television stations. Broadcasters sued over alleged copyright violations. Locast ceased operations, promising to appeal the decision.[11]
