14 DAY TRIAL // The problem of copyright-infringing materials seems to extend beyond illegal file sharing networks and onto the Internet. In some situations, the content posted by certain sites is returned as a search result by different search engines, without any consideration for the issue of copyright.
But there are some sites that have decided to take some measures regarding this problem. Thus, according to Elinor Mills for CNET News.com, adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 is suing Amazon.com, accusing the online store site that its search engine is violating copyright law by displaying countless images from the publisher's Web site without permission.
According to a statement by the publisher, "It is Perfect 10's contention that 'search engines' such as A9.com and Google are displaying hundreds of thousands of adult images, from the most tame to the most exceedingly explicit, to draw massive traffic to their Web sites, which they convert into ad revenue or sales revenue".
The California-based adult magazine publisher has filed a similar lawsuit against Google in November and stated that it has sent numerous notices of infringement to both Google and Amazon, which the two search engines have chosen to ignore.
The lawsuit against Amazon was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Through a motion for preliminary injunction, that was due to be filed on Friday, Perfect 10 asks the court to prevent Amazon's A9 search unit from displaying and distributing the images, said Russell Frackman, an attorney representing the publisher.
It seems that the there are more than 1,000 images in question, and under U.S. copyright law, defendants could have to pay up to $150,000 for each infraction, according to Frackman.
The search sites are accused of displaying small-size images of Perfect 10's, but also larger images and links to many other Web sites that are showing full sizes of the copyright images, said the publisher's attorney.
Porn is a one of the main search subjects on the Internet, thus bringing a large income from advertising fees. However, as search engines expand into images and video, they are increasingly at risk of being becoming targets of copyright lawsuits, especially considering the Supreme Court's decision last week on copyright-infringing companies. On Thursday, Google rushed to remove copyright-infringing movies and TV episodes that were uploaded to its new video search.