Video-sharing service Veoh has been granted copyright immunity in a case that could influence other video services.

A US district court judge ruled that the video site qualified for protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and could not be sued for copyright infringement.

The site had been sued by adult video studio Io Group, which claimed that Veoh violated its copyright in 2006 when the site displayed user-uploaded clips from 10 of its films.

The judge, however, sided with Veoh, ruling that the site had complied sufficiently with DMCA terms and should be awarded safe harbour from legal action.

Though it is commonly used as a vehicle for copyright owners to order video takedowns, the DMCA also provides protection for video sites in certain cases where it is deemed that the site is making an effort to protect copyright, but cannot completely control user uploads.

Fred Von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a blog posting that the decision was a 'total victory' for Veoh and should provide a valuable lesson for other sites threatened with copyright suits.

"The ruling should be required reading for the executives of every Web 2.0 business that relies on user-generated content," wrote Von Lohmann.

"The key to Veoh's victory was its scrupulous attention to the DMCA safe harbours. Veoh responded to compliant DMCA takedown notices on a same-day basis, it notified users of its policies against copyright infringement, registered a Copyright Agent with the Copyright Office, terminated users who were repeat infringers and blocked new registrations from the same email addresses and used hashes to stop the same infringing videos from being uploaded by other users."