In a Thursday ruling, a commercial court in Madrid, Spain, dismissed the copyright infringement charges that Spanish television broadcaster Gestevision Telecinco SA had leveled against Google’s online video-sharing website, YouTube.

In its complaint, Telecinco – a subsidiary of Italy’s Mediaset - had claimed that the posting of the company’s audio-visual content on YouTube amounted to an infringement of its intellectual property rights. Telecinco said that YouTube is accountable for the uploading of the copyright-infringing content by its users.

However, dismissing Telecinco’s argument and siding with Google in the copyright-infringement lawsuit, the court ruled that YouTube was not required to screen television clips for potential copyright violations before posting them on the site.

Noting that the Madrid court ruling will have wider implications for Google, the company said that Mediaset too had, in Italy, filed a copyright lawsuit against Google over video uploads; but no ruling has thus far been made in the case.

The Madrid court decision follows a similar ruling by a US judge in June, when media company Viacom’s copyright infringement claims against YouTube were rejected.

Commenting on the ruling, Google said in a statement: “The court recognized that YouTube is merely a content-hosting platform and should not be made to pre-screen videos before they are uploaded. This win confirms what we have always said: YouTube operates within the law.”