Google's image search violates some copyrights

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Judge says Google's image search violates some copyrights
By Elise Ackerman
Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/13928636.
htm

A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that Google's image search 
violates an adult Web site's copyrights by displaying 
``thumbnail'' versions of its photos. In a ruling released 
Tuesday, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz found Google directly 
infringed on copyrights held by Perfect 10, a Beverly Hills 
publisher. He said the free availability of the photos on Google 
could harm Perfect 10's efforts to sell thumbnail, or small, 
versions of its photos as downloads to cell phones. ``The court 
reaches this conclusion despite the enormous public benefit that 
search engines such as Google provide,'' Matz wrote in a 47-page 
order filed Friday. If upheld, the judge's ruling could affect 
Yahoo and other Internet companies whose image searches display 
thumbnails of copyrighted pictures.

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Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone 704 687-2825