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The
lawsuit served by adult-image publisher Perfect 10 against Google is interesting and complexly motivated. On the
face of it, the charges of copyright infringement are legitimate. Beyond the specific claims, Perfect 10 seems to be
striking a blow for content owners everywhere by pointing out Google’s questionable respect for rights across the
board. But the other side of this seems strictly promotional—a loud publicity stunt designed to draw traffic.
Perfect 10 contends that Google illegally displays imagery belonging to
Perfect 10 on Googe Images, courtesy of thousands of AdSense sites that rip off those images. To make matters worse in
Perfect 10’s perspective, Google earns AdWords revenue from the ads displayed on those infringing AdSense sites. The
charges released to the press are scathing:
”Google is no longer a legitimate search engine. It is a commercial advertising operation determined to increase ad
revenue regardless of what rights it tramples on in the process.”
...and…
”If all an infringer needs to avoid liability is to provide some sort of a ‘search function,’ that will be the end
of intellectual property in this country.”
The law firm representing Perfect 10 is Mitchell, Silverberg, and Knupp, which
represented record labels in litigation against file-sharing company KaZaA.
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