Google's YouTube Wins Another Copyright Case

A Spanish court handed Google's YouTube another copyright win Thursday, saying it was the responsibility of Telecinco to notify YouTube whenever it noticed its copyrighted broadcast video had been uploaded to YouTube, according to a Google blog post.

For Google (GOOG), that win comes as the company is preparing to duke it out with Viacom (VIA) in federal appeals court.

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Last month, Viacom appealed a lower court's ruling in its closely watched $1 billion copyright case against YouTube. Like Telecinco, the media giant said it was YouTube's responsibility to monitor and remove copyright material uploaded by its users. Viacom originally filed its suit back in 2006.

In commenting on the court's decision in Madrid, Google said in its blog: "This decision reaffirms European law which recognizes that content owners (not service providers like YouTube) are in the best position to know whether a specific work is authorized to be on an Internet hosting service and states that websites like YouTube have a responsibility to take down unauthorized material only when they are notified by the owner."