A US court has ruled in favour of Google's video-sharing website YouTube in a copyright infringement case to which the English Premier League had been added as a claimant. The case was originally brought by US media giant Viacom, which, like the Premier League, complained that its copyrighted material was being illegally uploaded to and viewed on YouTube. Viacom was seeking at least $1 billion in damages.

Bloomberg reports that U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton, sitting in a court in New York, said YouTube that it was protected by US legislation which says a service provider isn't liable for infringement if it removes material from its site when notified by the copyright owner.

"The provider must know of the particular case before he can control it," Stanton said in the ruling. "The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."

The judge pointed out that over 24 hours worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Viacom has said it will appeal the decision. The Premier League has not announced yet whether it will appeal.