French Court Sides With Google in YouTube Case

PARIS — A French court on Tuesday dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Google’s online video-sharing platform, YouTube, in a case that has parallels with the long-running struggle between YouTube and Viacom in the United States.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance declared that YouTube, which lets people post videos to the site, had made sufficiently adequate efforts to remove programs like “Heroes” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for which TF1, the biggest television company in France, owned French broadcasting rights.

TF1 had sought €141 million, or $176 million, in damages. Instead, it was ordered to pay €80,000 for Google’s legal expenses.

The decision “represents a victory for the Internet and for all those who depend on the Web to exchange ideas and information,” said Christophe Mueller, YouTube’s head of partnerships for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“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,” Mr. Mueller said.

In its lawsuit, TF1 wanted YouTube to filter all content before it was uploaded, in order to remove copyrighted material. Currently, YouTube uses a system called Content ID to try to identify copyrighted videos. Once it does, it informs the owner of the material, who can decide to take it down or to let YouTube sell advertising against it, under a revenue-sharing arrangement between the copyright owner and Google.

After the decision Tuesday, TF1 said it had not decided on its next move.

“The TF1 Group has taken note of the decision, which appears surprising in several respects,” the company said. “That is why the group is studying the possibility of appealing the judgment.”

The decision runs counter to several other recent legal rulings in Europe in which copyright owners took aim at YouTube, which serves up more than four billion videos a day.

Last month, a court in Germany ordered Google to install filters on YouTube to prevent the uploading of copyrighted material, in a case brought by musicians, filmmakers and other creators of art and entertainment.

Though Google is appealing the German decision, it declared a partial victory in that case, noting that the court had agreed that YouTube should be considered a hosting platform, a status that confers some protection under European Union law. The French court also sided with Google on this issue.

In Italy, the broadcaster Mediaset, controlled by Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, in 2009 won a court order requiring YouTube to remove videos of a Mediaset program, the Italian version of "Big Brother.''

In the United States, meanwhile, an appeals court in April revived the copyright suit brought by Viacom, the media conglomerate that counts Paramount Pictures and MTV among its many media properties, against Google, ruling that a jury should hear the case.

A lower court had previously decided that YouTube qualified for the so-called safe harbor provision of U.S. copyright law, which absolves Web platforms of violations as long as they move quickly to remove protected material when informed of its presence.

Mr. Mueller said it was not clear whether the ruling in France would have any effect on other cases, like the Viacom dispute, but he said the company hoped to reach agreements with more owners of media content, rather than fighting them in court.

“It’s good to put this behind us,” he said of the French case. “We hope that this will allow us to move on and do more constructive partnerships around the world.”

Google also recently reached a settlement with French artists, composers and music publishers, under which it agreed to pay royalties for works streamed via YouTube.