Google is evil but copyright more evil still.
ben | 23.02.2006 14:51 | Analysis | Indymedia | Technology | World
A judge in the USA has ruled that Google’s search services breaches copyright by displaying thumbnail photographs, in a case brought by porn magazine.
"Google’s display of thumbnails in image search results pages would not be likely to fall within a “fair use” exception to copyright law,", Judge Howard Matz ruled.
"Google’s display of thumbnails in image search results pages would not be likely to fall within a “fair use” exception to copyright law,", Judge Howard Matz ruled.
The ruling against google has very worrying implications. Fair use exceptions to copyright law were obviously conceived before search engines (or indeed the concept of the internet or computers) were invented. Search engines copy, store and index entire copyrighted websites in order to perform search queries. This means that they are always breaching copyright unless they somehow fall into one of the fair use exceptions.
After all this time it is reasonable to assume that this issue must have already been dealt with before in relation to copyrighted text held by google so it is surprising that this case relating to images should be considered substantially different.
In his ruling, the judge said the he'd reached his conclusion "despite the enormous public benefit that search engines such as Google provide."
Well, that's the point and the spirit of fair use - there are exceptions to copyright because it would be hugely damaging if there were not. For example, academia would collapse if it were unable to quote passages from copyrighted texts but 'fair use' says it can. Surely search engines should be considered in a similar way?
The judge was obviously mindful of the issues but failed to take the initiative, “Although the court is reluctant to issue a ruling that might impede the advance of internet technology, and although it is appropriate for courts to consider the immense value to the public of such technologies, existing judicial precedents do not allow such considerations to trump a reasoned analysis of the four fair-use factors.”
While the ruling is likely to have a knock-on effect on other search engines producing thumbnail images, the implications are far wider. The search companies are already under fire from the World Association of Newspapers, which is seeking to “challenge the exploitation of content” because of the way they aggregate news content without paying for it. Agence France Presse has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the search company offers its photos and stories without permission.
After all this time it is reasonable to assume that this issue must have already been dealt with before in relation to copyrighted text held by google so it is surprising that this case relating to images should be considered substantially different.
In his ruling, the judge said the he'd reached his conclusion "despite the enormous public benefit that search engines such as Google provide."
Well, that's the point and the spirit of fair use - there are exceptions to copyright because it would be hugely damaging if there were not. For example, academia would collapse if it were unable to quote passages from copyrighted texts but 'fair use' says it can. Surely search engines should be considered in a similar way?
The judge was obviously mindful of the issues but failed to take the initiative, “Although the court is reluctant to issue a ruling that might impede the advance of internet technology, and although it is appropriate for courts to consider the immense value to the public of such technologies, existing judicial precedents do not allow such considerations to trump a reasoned analysis of the four fair-use factors.”
While the ruling is likely to have a knock-on effect on other search engines producing thumbnail images, the implications are far wider. The search companies are already under fire from the World Association of Newspapers, which is seeking to “challenge the exploitation of content” because of the way they aggregate news content without paying for it. Agence France Presse has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the search company offers its photos and stories without permission.
ben
Additions
dealing with Google
23.02.2006 15:42
Despite the questionable practises of Google many still use it. Indymedia UK after finding it's native search was too much of resource hog, switched to it for search box for the site, but then switch to using the Google scraper scroogle ( 
http://www.scroogle.org ) to protect users from privacy breaching Google cookie, where one trusts google with bulk record of your searchs. But some users preffer the look and layout of actual google page over scroogle, or other features.
On good option is for users to browse google using Firefox web browser with the CustomizeGoogle extension ( http://www.customizegoogle.com/ ). As well as anonymizing the Google cookie UID one can remove ads.
Also there are ways to set every browser to either block google cookie or discard after session, and you may wish to do this with other sites where cookie not need for functionality.
Disable your cookies for specific site such as Google.
Explorer 6.0 Tools - Internet Options - Privacy - Edit (near the bottom) - type in google.com - Block - OK - OK
Firefox 1.0 Tools - Options - Privacy - Stored cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - check Don't allow... box at bottom - Remove cookie - OK - OK
Opera 7.51 Tools - Cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - Delete - New - type in google.com - check Apply... - uncheck 3 Accept... - OK - Close
Netscape 7.1 Tools - Cookie Manager - Manage Stored Cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - check Don't allow... box at bottom - Remove cookie - Close
repeat for google.co.uk
Obviously this deals with only one aspect of Google and the like.
A commerical search engine that does not use cookies is http://clusty.com/ which comes up with pretty similar ordering for most searchs as google, it uses Microsoft's webcrawler results as there are only really 3 web crawlers google, yahoo and microsoft/msn that search deep and often over others.
There is a search engine for selected activist sites: http://activista.org/
which comes up with different ordering.
I am keen to help liberate computer users by spreading knowledge about how tech corporations subjugate them so can try to avoid this, and togeather defend ourselves.
On another issue I will plug this short movie about 'trusted' computing:
http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
http://www.scroogle.org ) to protect users from privacy breaching Google cookie, where one trusts google with bulk record of your searchs. But some users preffer the look and layout of actual google page over scroogle, or other features. On good option is for users to browse google using Firefox web browser with the CustomizeGoogle extension (
http://www.customizegoogle.com/ ). As well as anonymizing the Google cookie UID one can remove ads. Also there are ways to set every browser to either block google cookie or discard after session, and you may wish to do this with other sites where cookie not need for functionality.
Disable your cookies for specific site such as Google.
Explorer 6.0 Tools - Internet Options - Privacy - Edit (near the bottom) - type in google.com - Block - OK - OK
Firefox 1.0 Tools - Options - Privacy - Stored cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - check Don't allow... box at bottom - Remove cookie - OK - OK
Opera 7.51 Tools - Cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - Delete - New - type in google.com - check Apply... - uncheck 3 Accept... - OK - Close
Netscape 7.1 Tools - Cookie Manager - Manage Stored Cookies - highlight your google.com cookie - check Don't allow... box at bottom - Remove cookie - Close
repeat for google.co.uk
Obviously this deals with only one aspect of Google and the like.
A commerical search engine that does not use cookies is
http://clusty.com/ which comes up with pretty similar ordering for most searchs as google, it uses Microsoft's webcrawler results as there are only really 3 web crawlers google, yahoo and microsoft/msn that search deep and often over others. There is a search engine for selected activist sites:
http://activista.org/ which comes up with different ordering.
I am keen to help liberate computer users by spreading knowledge about how tech corporations subjugate them so can try to avoid this, and togeather defend ourselves.
On another issue I will plug this short movie about 'trusted' computing:
http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
bunny
Homepage:
http://j12.org/sb/