Hello Company

A judge has issued injunction against Google in the Perfect 10 Image Search case. As you know, Perfect 10 is an adult-oriented site dealing with biological [:-)] images. The judge ruled that Google’s image search service, which displays small thumbnail versions of images found on other Web sites, ‘probably’ violates U.S. copyright law. Though other US courts have ruled that just linking to images via thumbnails isn’t copyright infringement.



Techdirt has got it right. The problem is the menace of copying a site’s data and reposting it someplace else. Now, Google’s bots have no way of identifying between the original and ‘pirated’ versions. After it is just an indexer.



The problem for Perfect10 arose when it started its Mobile ‘images’ service whose potential was dampened by the thumbnails on copycat sites. Obviously, Google’s Image Bot can’t differentiate between the two when displaying search results.



Techdirt sums up the situation nicely,

So, again, we have to wonder why the judge is punishing Google, when the real culprits are those who took the photos and reposted them to the web? The judge should be asking the other company why it decided not to go after those actually responsible.