Perfect 10 v. Google

On May 16, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed Internet innovators and users of all stripes a huge victory in Perfect 10 v. Google. The opinion was amended on December 3, 2007. Perfect 10 had sued Google for copyright infringement, claiming that its "Image Search" tool illegally reproduced and displayed P10 photos when it returned thumbnail results and framed third-party websites in response to search terms. It also claimed that Google was liable for contributing to Internet user infringement when users would look at pictures online that they had found via Google Image search. While it leaves some questions open, the bottom line is that the Court upheld important policies of fair use and freedom online and resisted Perfect 10's plea to put copyright owners completely in charge of how and when search engines and other online intermediaries can provide their users with links to images. EFF filed an amicus brief on behalf of Google to beat back Perfect 10's overreaching copyright claims.