Just read this annoucement on StrategyEye:

Content providers in the US may now have to pursue copyright infringers themselves, rather than service providers, after Google   won a landmark lawsuit against Viacom. In the long-running USD1bn case, which Viacom brought against Google for hosting content from Viacom assets such as MTV on YouTube, a New York court indicated that Google is doing enough to fight piracy.

The court ruled that Google had complied with Digital Millennium Copyright Act regulations requiring service providers to remove copyrighted material once notified by copyright holders. The onus now appears to be on rights holders to put more focus on tracking down copyright offenders and offending material. District Judge Louis Stanton said the firm could not be held accountable for a "general awareness" that content could be posted illegally on its network

"YouTube was given notices, it removed the material... it is thus protected from liability," said Judge Stanton's ruling. "Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough. The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."

The ruling has far-reaching implications for online copyright law. Many rights holding organisations have chosen to pursue service providers rather than those uploading infringing material, insisting that firms such as YouTube have a duty to police their sites. This may now shift, although Viacom is set to fight the verdict.

"We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and the views of the Supreme Court as expressed in its most recent decisions," says Viacom, which will appeal the ruling.

Google says that the ruling follows established precedent that service providers are protected from prosecution if they work with copyright holders to deal with infringing material. The ruling also applies to other rights holders party to the lawsuit, such as UK football association the Premier League.

"This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other," says Google VP and general counsel Kent Walker on the firm's corporate blog.

Viacom first launched the suit against Google in 2007, alleging that Google executives were aware of the value of content posted illegally on YouTube and that "fostering and countenancing this piracy were central to YouTube's economic business model". Google has fought back, saying that it has met its duty to remove copyrighted content once notified that it was available on YouTube, and claiming that Viacom secretly uploaded its content to YouTube in order to promote its shows, making it impractical to remove offending material. Google has also pointed to YouTube's ContentID system for filtering out copyrighted material as evidence it is doing its best to protect copyright.

It seems that common sense is prevailing.