Is YouTube ripping off Viacom – and the broader media industry, for that matter? Not according to US District judge Louis Stanton, who quickly dismissed Viacom’s billion-dollar lawsuit in summary judgement Wednesday afternoon.

The lawsuit focused on the Google-owned video giant, a growth story that Viacom alleges was partly powered by its content. But Stanton ruled that YouTube has been complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by effectively investigating and removing videos upon request. “Indeed, the present case shows that the DMCA notification regime works efficiently: when Viacom over a period of months accumulated some 100,000 videos and then sent one mass take-down notice on February 2, 2007, by the next business day YouTube had removed virtually all of them,” Stanton opined.

Google was obviously pleased. “The decision follows established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are protected when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them manage their rights online,” said Kent Walker, Vice President and General Counsel of Google in an afternoon statement.

The implication suggests a status quo for labels and publishers, though the parties have long since created revenue sharing agreements. On top of that, the integration of Vevo has cleaned the number of dirty dupes on YouTube, leading – at least potentially – to a more “monetize-able” site.