I regularly report news on the litigation between Viacom and YouTube. Wednesday, 23rd June was the latest event.
Judge Louis Stanton, in an extensive 30-page report, ruled in favor of Google. Judge Stanton selected a law that protects ISPs from copyright infringements if they quickly banish the infringing pieces of content. For instance, he explained that YouTube removed in one day the 100,000 videos that were cited in a Viacom takedown notice. It took Viacom several months to collect these infringing samples.
The lawsuit highlighted some embarrassing behaviours when analyzing the email exchanges. For instance, two founders of YouTube pleaded the third founder to stop posting infringing content on YouTube (at the birth of YouTube). Some documents showed that Viacom expected to acquire YouTube before Google. And many other stories…

As usual, the two opponents sides are orthogonal. I would suggest reading both point of views. For instance:

• Viacom’s site dedicated to this litigation.
• EFF’s legal analysis of the judgment.

Is it the end of the story? No, Viacom goes on appeal.