diff --git a/libavfilter/avfilter.c b/libavfilter/avfilter.c
index f6695997cb..8419887480 100644
--- a/libavfilter/avfilter.c
+++ b/libavfilter/avfilter.c
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ static AVFilter **filters = NULL;
 AVFilterPicRef *avfilter_ref_pic(AVFilterPicRef *ref, int pmask)
 {
     AVFilterPicRef *ret = av_malloc(sizeof(AVFilterPicRef));
-    memcpy(ret, ref, sizeof(AVFilterPicRef));
+    *ret = *ref;
     ret->perms &= pmask;
     ret->pic->refcount ++;
     return ret;