The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has ruled that myVidster’s linking to illegally uploaded videos is not an act of contributory copyright infringement.

According to the ruling, which vacated a decision granting a preliminary injunction, linking to streamed videos does not contribute to infringement by copying, because there is no copying occurring.

The court recognised as plausible an argument that the linking contributed to infringement by public performance (transmission). However, the court was not willing to grant a preliminary injunction on the facts before it.

Most relevant, as a matter of fact, was that myVidster was “not providing a market for pirated works, because infringers who transmit copyrighted works to myVidster’s visitors are not selling them”. This meant there was no evidence that myVidster’s linking was “actually contributing significantly” to the unauthorised public performance of the videos.