Google Sued for Porn

Australian IT: THE publisher of a US men’s magazine has sued Google, alleging that the internet search giant is infringing on copyright by displaying thousands of pictures of nude women.

The magazine said it had already filed a complaint against Google in November 2004 claiming the web giant “is displaying hundreds of thousands of adult images, from the most tame to the most exceedingly explicit, to draw massive traffic to its website, which it is converting into hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising revenue”.

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Copyright on the web has always been a contentious issue given that you can easily copy and make use of other people’s logos, graphics, photographs, videos, music and text. There are billions of webpages so the chances of you being singled out for infringement is small (until you get popular that is) and often webmasters simply choose to take the risk. I’ve seen many a site that features photography reproduced without permission and the owner stands behind a weak disclaimer along the lines of “if you own the rights to the media and you don’t want us to publish them, contact us and we will take them down“. Generally that’s good enough, until of course you start to profit from it, which clearly Google does now, at least indirectly, and that’s when the trouble starts brewing. Of course when your profits are fat and the public knows it companies are that much more eager to go after you. To stay safe – don’t make money!

I remember running my first few hobby sites on video games and trading cards and talking to friends who also managed hobby websites. We often made use of the official logos from the producers of the games, used screenshots and imagery which were all copyrighted and technically, should not have been using. But how can a fan site, a site that provides great free promotion for the products, operate without making use of media about the hobby the owners are so passionate about. I’d love for someone to make a fan site for any products I was selling (groupies!) and certainly would encourage the use of my media – it’s free exposure and branding!

Take blogs for example. Every day thousands of bloggers are posting logos and graphics from some of the highest profile companies in the world. These images usually contain links back to the company website and provide free traffic and increased exposure. In return the blogger gets a post that is just a little bit more appealing featuring pictures as well as text. It’s win-win.

Of course there is a fine line between exploitation and promotion and this of course is where things start to get all blurry. As long as the web remains as open as it is now these sorts of legal cases will continue to manifest.