Monday, May 3, 2010

German Court: Google Image Search Not a Copyright Violation; PC Mag, 4/29/10

Chloe Albanesius, PC Mag; German Court: Google Image Search Not a Copyright Violation:

"Google's Image Search is not a copyright violation, according to a German court.

The German Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that images pulled from the Web and displayed on Google's Image Search results does not infringe on the owner's rights.

"Today's ruling makes it clear not just for Google, its users in Germany and all owners of Web sites containing images, but also for all providers of image search services operating in the country: showing thumbnail images within search results is legitimate and millions of users in Germany benefit from being able to discover virtual information at the click of a mouse," Arnd Haller, managing counsel for Google Germany, wrote in a blog post.

The case dates back several years: A German artist who had uploaded photos of her paintings to her Web site sued Google for copyright infringement when those photos showed up in Google Image Search.

Haller said Google is still waiting for the full decision, but "what we know today [is that] thousands of Web sites and companies in Germany will be able to benefit from Google Image Search in the future as well," Haller wrote."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363263,00.asp

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