[engadget.com...]

The Viacom copyright infringement case against Google and YouTube has been a long strange journey since it started, but it looks like the first major chapter is over: the federal court today ruled that Google falls under the "safe harbor" provision of the DMCA which protects service providers from liability for user content. Roughly, that means Google isn't liable for copyright infringement on YouTube in general: it can only be liable for infringing specific copyrighted works, and since YouTube pulls videos as soon as anyone complains, it can't get in trouble.

Oh boy. The countersuit will take years so score a big one for Google. I'll be celebrating by downloading a bunch of free music off of YouTube tonight!

This also opens the flood gates for the rest of you. Want to run a site with plenty of illegal content to easily make money? Have users upload it and claim ignorance!