Two German court have ruled that Google image search creating thumbnails to view before the user wants to go to the site infringes on copyright. Two lawsuits have been settled and now Google will have to remove thumbnails from their image search in Germany. The court ruled that Google is modifying the images illegally by creating thumbnails and is in violation of copyright law and that downsizing the images doesn't create a new work. Google is, of course, very pissed off. They're saying its a sad day for internet users and that business are going to take a major step backward because of it.
Personally, I think it's kind of stupid that the courts came to these decisions, but I do see how they could have gotten there. What will be interesting is if www.ask.com is up next because with one of their features you can actually preview the webpage. It should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081013-german-court-google-image-thumbnails-infringe-on-copyright.html
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WOW thats lame. Shouldn't people be happy that their images are showing up on google? makes their images more likely to be seen. I know I love the thumbnail images when I am searching. It makes searching that much more simple and fast. I can't believe what people sue for.
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