Judge Louis L Stanton of the US District Court of New York has dismissed Viacom's $1bn copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube video-sharing site on Wednesday.
Media conglomerate Viacom had accused the search company of posting Viacom's copyrighted videos on its video-sharing site without requisite permission.
The court decided that YouTube is protected by the "safe harbour" provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement, Google stated on its site.
"The decision follows established judicial consensus," Google continued, "that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online."
Viacom said it felt that the ruling by the lower court was flawed and against the rules of the DMCA. The company said it would approach the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit soon.
