Further to our previous story about Google facing copyright issues with it"s new Google Print service, the search engine is also under fire for it"s Google Image search, which an adult publisher is claiming breaches copyright. Perfect 10"s complaints stem from the images that can be found using Google on websites that are using Perfect 10 content without permission. This same content is also available using Amazon"s A9 search.
"They are giving away exactly what we are selling," Norm Zada, the founder of Perfect 10 said. "There is no business that can survive if someone comes along and gives away their product. Google"s extraordinary gain in market cap from nothing a few years ago to close to eighty billion dollars, is more due to their massive misappropriation of intellectual property than anything else."
Some might argue that the problem lies not with Google for displaying these results, but with the websites that Google is locating them on. If successful, this case may open the floodgates for other cases against Google that involve copyrighted works. Google recently suspended it"s plans to scan copyrighted books for Google Print, choosing to focus on public domain until agreements can be reached with publishers.