Judge Grants Google Motion in Viacom Suit

Google successfully defended itself in a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit by Viacom when a federal judge ruled that Google was protected by "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Viacom had filed the lawsuit after thousands of its videos were uploaded to Google's YouTube. Viacom alleged that Google knew that copyrighted videos had been uploaded to YouTube but failed to take any action. Judge Louis L. Stanton of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that since the videos were removed when requested, Google is "thus protected 'from liability for all monetary relief for direct, vicarious and contributory infringement' subject to the specific provisions of the DMCA." Google has posted the order here. Viacom says it will appeal the ruling.