Google's online-video sharing platform YouTube made French toast of the France's largest television company, TF1, winning a court ruling that not only excused the company from paying a €141 million (USD 175.47 million) penalty to the broadcaster but made TF1 pay YouTube €80,000 (USD 99,560) for its legal expenses.

It was a rare win for Google/YouTube when the French Tribunal de Grande Instance said that YouTube made an adequate effort to remove programs owned by the French broadcaster and did not need to take any extra steps to make sure those programs did not appear on its site.

It was "a victory for the Internet and for all those who depend on the Web to exchange ideas and information," Christophe Mueller, YouTube's head of partnerships for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa told The New York Times. "It upholds the right for user-generated content platforms to innovate, allowing us to do even more to help French artists to reach audiences at home and abroad."

TF1, not surprisingly, disagreed, calling the decision "surprising in many respects" and stating that it is "studying the possibility of appealing the judgment."

While TF1 wanted the court to tell YouTube to filter all content before it's placed to remove copyrighted material the court seemed to think Google's current method of using Content ID to identify copyrighted videos then giving the material's owner the chance to take it down or let YouTube sell advertising against under a revenue sharing arrangement.

Last, a German court ordered Google to install filters on YouTube to prevent uploading of copyright materials. Before that, an Italian court order Google to keep content owned by broadcaster Mediaset off YouTube or face a 250 euros per unauthorized video per day fine.

In the United States, an appeals court has ruled that a Viacom copyright suit against Google should be heard by a jury.