German court: Google Image Search infringes copyright
- Transfer
Although many [ Americans - approx. translator ] complain about the severity of laws on intellectual property in the United States, the European courts once again prove - everything could be much worse. The last reminder came from Germany, and concerns the right to create thumbnails from images. A German court decided that this infringed the copyright of the creator of the image.
Google has long been unlucky in the European courts. Last year, Google lost a lawsuit in a Belgian newspaper association, claiming that news quotes used in Google News search results violate its copyright. The content of the Belgian newspapers disappeared from Google News, but Google does not give up - now the court is considering the appeal.
In the latter case, Google was found guilty of copyright infringement by the photographer and comic book artist. According to Bloomberg News, Google lost both of these cases, the court ruled that changing the image “cannot be recognized as creating an independent work”, thus putting the creation of thumbnails outlawed.
Another interesting point. Although authors of protected works can independently prohibit access to the desired images for search robots, the court recognized that the search system is obliged to somehow exclude copyrighted works. Since it is now impossible to do this automatically, a court decision is likely to lead to radical changes in the German version of Google Image Search.
It is unlikely that Google will be the only one to encounter such an attitude. A similar case was recently initiated by Perfect 10, this time against Microsoft. In the meantime, the already mentioned Belgian newspapers are again suing - this time against the European Union . It seems that we should expect sanctions against other image search services in Germany.
Google has long been unlucky in the European courts. Last year, Google lost a lawsuit in a Belgian newspaper association, claiming that news quotes used in Google News search results violate its copyright. The content of the Belgian newspapers disappeared from Google News, but Google does not give up - now the court is considering the appeal.
In the latter case, Google was found guilty of copyright infringement by the photographer and comic book artist. According to Bloomberg News, Google lost both of these cases, the court ruled that changing the image “cannot be recognized as creating an independent work”, thus putting the creation of thumbnails outlawed.
Another interesting point. Although authors of protected works can independently prohibit access to the desired images for search robots, the court recognized that the search system is obliged to somehow exclude copyrighted works. Since it is now impossible to do this automatically, a court decision is likely to lead to radical changes in the German version of Google Image Search.
It is unlikely that Google will be the only one to encounter such an attitude. A similar case was recently initiated by Perfect 10, this time against Microsoft. In the meantime, the already mentioned Belgian newspapers are again suing - this time against the European Union . It seems that we should expect sanctions against other image search services in Germany.