A group of websites publish material that may infringe Perfect 10's copyrights and trademarks. Perfect 10 sues credit card processors Visa and Mastercard for contributory and vicarious copyright and trademark infringement in addition to various other claims (state trademark, right of publicity, unfair competition, false advertising and libel.) US District Court grants summary judgment to the defendants on all grounds: Perfect 10 v. Visa International (N.D.Ca., 04-0371).
Contributory copyright infringement requires a material contribution to the infringement-- more than a mere contribution to the general business of the infringer. In order to find contributory copyright infringement, the contribution must bear some logical relationship to the actual instances of infringement. Providers of content neutral services (like credit card verification or P2P servers with no central index server) are concerned solely with financial aspects of the websites, not their content and should not be held responsible for contributory copyright infringement.
Judge Ware distinguishes the finding of vicariously liability in Napster. In Napster, the party found vicariously liable "actually supplied the product that was being used to enable the infringing distribution of copyrighted works" and could control the distribution of the infringing works. Rescinding credit card processing does not directly affect the illicit distribution of copyrighted pornography.
Law.com: Federal Judge Tosses Porn Purveyor's Copyright Suit Against Credit Card Companies
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