Google, YouTube Pick Up Copyright Win In France

Google’s YouTube won a legal victory today when a French court dismissed a copyright violation lawsuit filed against by TF1, a French television company.

According to a New York Times report, TF1’s lawsuit asked the court to rule that YouTube was required to pre-filter all content before it was published on the site. But the Tribunal de Grande Instance decided that YouTube’s existing system for dealing with copyrighted material is adequate.

(That system, called Content ID, prompts YouTube to identify copyrighted material and notify the owner of the possible infringement. The content owner can then elect to have the content removed or allow YouTube to place ads on it, with revenue from those ads being shared between YouTube and the content owner.)

YouTube’s Christophe Mueller tells the Times that today’s ruling “represents a victory for the Internet and for all those who depend on the Web to exchange ideas and information. It upholds the right for user generated content platforms to innovate, allowing us to do even more to help French artists to reach audiences at home and abroad.”

Last month, a German court told YouTube to improve its copyright protections in a case that both sides said was a partial victory.