A federal judge at US District Court has dismissed Viacom’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Google, which alleged that the search major is publishing its clips from shows on YouTube without its permission.
The US District Judge Louis Stanton has rejected the case for the second time in three years.
Stanton said in his ruling: "There is no evidence YouTube induced its users to submit infringing videos, provided users with detailed instructions about what content to upload or edited their content, prescreened submissions for quality, steered users to infringing videos or otherwise interacted with infringing users to a point where it might be said to have participated in their infringing activity."
In 2007, Viacom filed its $1bn lawsuit against YouTube and other services, while accusing YouTube of broadcasting 79,000 copyrighted videos on its website between 2005 to 2008.
Viacom alleged that Google illegally posted clips from ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,’ ‘South Park,’ ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ and other programmes uploaded by users on YouTube.
Viacom PR vice president Jeremy Zweig said the latest ruling ignores the opinions of the higher courts and completely disregards the rights of creative artists.
"A jury should weigh the facts of this case and the overwhelming evidence that YouTube wilfully infringed," Zweig said.
The lawsuit was combined with a similar complaint from the English Premier League, which alleged YouTube of broadcasting football clips without authorisation.
