The advocate general said in a statement explaining his opinion:

"Hyperlinks which lead, even directly, to protected works are not 'making them available' to the public when they are already freely accessible on another website, and only serve to facilitate their discovery."

The EU law that gives rise to these kinds of cases states that authors have "the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit any communication to the public of their works." Back in 2014, the Court of Justice was summoned because some Swedish journalists weren't happy that there are websites linking to their pieces without permission.

While Wathelet's take on the matter isn't legally binding, and the verdict won't be out until later this year, European courts take the Advocate General's opinion seriously. They depend on the Court of Justice to dissect and interpret the European Union's laws, after all.