YouTube acquitted of copyright violation in Spain

MADRID - A Spanish court has rejected a copyright complaint against video-sharing website YouTube, the firm announced Thursday.

TV channel Telecinco lodged the complaint two years ago, accusing YouTube of violating intellectual property rights by illegally placing some of its content on the site.

The Madrid mercantile court ruled that YouTube was only an intermediary which could not exercise preliminary controls over the legitimacy of the videos that its users placed on the web.

YouTube only had the obligation to withdraw contents which were found to be illegal, the court said.

Google hailed the court decision as a “victory for thousands of millions of (internet) users all over the world, who use the web to communicate and to share experiences.”