Viacom claimed 'tens of thousands of videos on YouTube, resulting in hundreds of millions of views,' had been posted based on its copyrighted works, and that the defendants knew about but did nothing to stop the illegal uploads.
Google and YouTube, in contrast, argued they were entitled to 'safe harbor' protection under federal copyright law because they had insufficient notice of the particular alleged infringements.
In a 30-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton said the defendants were entitled to safe harbor protection 'against all of plaintiffs' claims for direct and secondary copyright infringement.'
He directed the parties to submit a report by July 14 to address any remaining issues in the case.
Viacom and Google were not immediately available for comment.
The cases are Viacom International Inc et al v. YouTube Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 07-02103; and The Football Association Premier League Ltd et al v. YouTube Inc et al in the same court, No. 07-03582.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Andre Grenon) Keywords: VIACOM/GOOGLE (jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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