Video-sharing site Veoh defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday in federal court, potentially giving Google's YouTube a tool in its defense against a $1 billion lawsuit filed by Viacom, according to a report posted on paidcontent.org.

Veoh was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit in 2006 by Io Group, but defended its actions citing provisions within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). That provision calls for a party to remove copyright material from their Web site, when notified by the copyright holder.

A judge for the U.S. District Court in San Jose found Veoh was not liable for hosting copyrighted videos that its users uploaded to its site, because the company used an automated process to post videos and did not play an active role in getting the material onto its site. The court also found that Veoh removed the material when informed by the copyright holder, putting it compliance with a "safe harbor" provision of the DMCA law, according to the report.

The ruling may bolster Google's efforts to defend its video-sharing site YouTube against Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit. In a posting in the Wall Street Journal, Google issued this statement:

It is great to see the Court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights...YouTube has gone above and beyond the law to protect content owners while empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online.