August 4, 2012 | Online

Court reverses piracy ruling against MyVidster

A three-judge appellate panel has struck down a 2011 ruling that had found MyVidster complicit in online piracy. The court found that the social video bookmarking site was not responsible for the links to copyright-infringing versions of Flava Works posted by users.

"MyVidster is not an infringer, at least in the form of copying or distributing copies of a copyrighted work. The infringers are the uploaders of the copyrighted work," 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner wrote for the panel.

MyVidster allows visitors to bookmark videos of their choice, which they can then watch, in embedded form, on the MyVidster website. The embedded videos are framed by advertisements.

The earlier judgement had found that MyVidster contributed to infringing activity by encouraging users to share illegal video downloads. The appellate court said that if FlavaWorks could prove that MyVidster's service really did contribute to the infringement of Flava's copyrights it might have a case; however, such proof has yet to be presented to the court.

FlavaWorks will now have to focus on the sites that are actually hosting the content being embedded on MyVidster.