Google Loses Copyright Infringement Case

(Los Angeles) Google will be prevented from displaying certain copyrighted thumbnail images according to a U.S. District Court ruling on Friday.

From Breitbart.com:

Internet giant Google Inc. infringed copyright rules by posting thumbnail-size photos from other websites on its search results pages, a US judge said in a ruling issued.

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.

Both sides in the case were instructed to craft the wording for a preliminary injunction barring Google from using the thumbnail-size images. Notably, the ruling applies only to images owned by the Perfect 10 company. For now, that is.

As the godfather of search engines, I would speculate that Google will be taken to court on a fairly regular basis.