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“The interests of justice favour ordering YouTube to disclose the information sought in furtherance of any copyright or employee discipline courses of action the OCDSB might take,” the application said.

In their court application, the school board said the video was both shot and disclosed without the student’s or his parent’s consent. The parents have since expressed concerns to the school board about violations of the child’s privacy.

The school board also cited privacy as its reason for acting.

“The school district is very concerned that the posting of this video is a violation of the student’s privacy,” OCDSB communications officer Sharlene Hunter said in an email. “The court action was initiated in an effort to learn who is posting the video. That information may help to avoid future postings.”

But an expert in Internet law said the school board’s request seems like “a little bit of a fishing expedition” that is unlikely to succeed, as the video has already been taken down.

Allen Mendelsohn said while the video violated the student’s privacy, it doesn’t appear any laws have been broken and the issue now seems to be more of a contractual or discipline issue between the board and one of its employees.

That likely won’t be enough to convince a judge the Internet companies should be forced to turn over records that they fiercely want to protect, said Mendelsohn, a Montreal lawyer.

“If you need the information to get it removed, a judge will order it,” said Mendelsohn. “I’m not sure there is actually something for a judge to hang his hat on beyond the school board just wanting to find out who this person was passing around the video. It’s definitely a stretch, that’s for sure.”