February 21st, 2006
Google Guilty of Hosting Thumbnail Porn Images
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
This is one of those gray zones you never know about until it files a lawsuit. If we covered technology lawsuits here on RTN, we’d have little room for gadgets and other news. But this one is interesting and may have even more bite down the road. As many of us know - Google Image Search lets you quickly find an image via search. On this blog, I know we live and breathe by this feature. In fact, the Google logo used in this posting comes from Google Images. But this week a judge ruled that Google was not allowed to host thumbnail sized porn images because it profited from key word advertising and was not just offering an image search.
We Say: Excuse Me? Then isn’t any search profiting from finding something while hosting key word-based ads? While we get the copyright business, how can this suddenly be illegal? Any legal eagles want to chime in here?
US District Judge Howard Matz’s ruling, handed down in Los Angeles, stems from a lawsuit filed in 2004 by the pornography firm Perfect 10 Inc., which accused Google of breaching on its copyrights. The type of search with which Perfect 10 took issue is Google’s “Image Search” function, which returns a page with tiny images — known as thumbnails — that fit the searcher’s query. The image search function also allows searchers to view the image as it appears on the page.
The judge ruled that because Google receives advertising money from offering search functions, it is not entitled to the same level of free use of the images as other entities would be. Much of Google’s revenues come from so-called keyword searches that link advertisers to users by their search criteria. He said Google’s use of pictures was different from that Arriba Soft Corp. — which a US court of appeals in California ruled earlier was operating within “fair use” principles by creating and using thumbnail images on its site. Source: Yahoo News
Leslie A. Kelly, Plaintiff, Kelly v Arriba Soft says:
This ruling is excellent news for those whose own creative and intellectual property are abused by image search engines. Google has operated differently in the deep past than the case of Arriba Soft’s Arriba Vista Image Search Engine which inline linked and displayed full size images surrounded by its own advertising. However, Google appears to have tripped on its own success in this matter with Perfect 10, Inc.
Leslie A. Kelly, (Successful) Plaintiff
Kelly v Arriba Soft Corp
February 22nd, 2006 at 6:45 am
Sean Brody says:
I just a bit curious as to how this ruling works with all the previous rulings on how search engines are not responsible for the content they index. Furthermore, being listed on google increases the value of Perfect 10. If they want to be excluded from the index they could just ask though i don’t see why they want to. No they want to be included in the index and just use copyright infringment as a way to charge google for the privelege of indexing them. Sounds like a telco strategy to me….
February 22nd, 2006 at 9:08 am
Leslie A. Kelly, Plaintiff, Kelly v Arriba Soft says:
Sean Brody, Perfect 10 sued Google.com basically because Google.com refused to remove images form its image files which were scanned by Google from third party websites which had illegally downloaded them from Perfect 10’s website and posted them on their own website. Judge Matz’s decision will be posted on http://netcopyrightlaw.com in the next several days so that this issue can be better understood.
Leslie A. Kelly
Plaintiff, Kelly v Arriba Soft Corp
http://netcopyrightlaw.com
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:07 am
Justin says:
Meh…
Unless Perfect 10 has an airtight case Google will crush them.
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Brody Miller says:
Has Perfect 10 ever heard of robots.txt? I can see wanting images removed once you have added source directoy protection or added a robots.txt, or even asking google to remove copyright violations from its cache (if other websites have copied the IP, a la eBay.) I think the legal system needs to make more than a tiny effort to catch up to the technology.
So if you don’t want it indexed, protect it, robots.txt it, or forget it!
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Zack says:
robots.txt anyone? Why is this an issue?
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Stephen R. Brown says:
Google is an empire based on theft and it’s high time the law recognized the legal rights of creators and copyright holders. If you are a photographer, try getting in touch with Google to get them to take down your indexed images. Google’s legal service dept doesn’t respond to mail whether it’s first class or fedexp. If you have a robot blocker in place (as they recommend), google still hits your site.
Worse yet, the full-size images they show viewers are a “theft of service” as they are displayed on the google site but served up from the copyright holders servers. In the end, Google is nothing more than intellectual theft served up under the guise of “new technology.”
February 24th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
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March 11th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Greg Tingle says:
Who has a bigger chequebook, Google or the advertisers in the search results? Media will love this story. Best Regards from “down under” Greg “Media Man” Tingle
May 16th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Fed to Bear's says:
To many idiots cry about there copyrights. Take a look at laws out of the US at least there somewhat sane. I know that if my photo’s showed up on a photo search. I would be happy that someone saw it.
If you get into art to make money, well then you are part of the problem.
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