Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
porn, search engines, thumbnails

Companies:
google, microsoft, perfect 10



Porn Publisher Suing Microsoft, Despite Losing To Google Over Identical Charges

from the keep-trying dept

Three years ago, porn magazine publisher Perfect 10 sued Google for copyright infringement. The case was a strange one. Google's image search was showing thumbnails of Perfect 10's images, but courts have ruled that thumbnails are fair use in search engines. The real complaint from Perfect 10 was that other sites were taking the images from their magazines and putting them online -- and that Google was helping people find them. In other words, the real copyright infringement was being done by others, but Perfect 10 was suing Google because Google has a lot more money and was an easier target. After some back and forth in the courts, an appeals court finally ruled in favor of Google. Oddly, despite this loss, Perfect 10 has gone out and sued Microsoft for the exact same thing. Once again, it's suing the wrong party -- and even admits it, saying that "it's absolutely hopeless" to find those actually responsible for the infringement, so it's suing Microsoft instead. That's like saying it's absolutely hopeless to find the bank robbers, so we're going to sue Ford for making their getaway car. Perfect 10 also complains that its business is being destroyed -- which is probably true. However, that's the result of a bad business model and not being able to adjust to the changing market. It may suck for Perfect 10 that it doesn't know how to run a modern business, but it's not against the law.

15 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 3:52pm

    LEWL

    by Jeff

    Perfect 10 sucks anyway, GGG all the way, son.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 4:27pm

    What a waste

    by nate

    ...Me thinks the money could be better spent on producing more pictures of beautiful women...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 5:05pm
    by anonymous coward

    people still pay for porn? isn't that quaint...

    between flickr amateurs, pornotube, torrents, and my own homemade stuff, i haven't paid for porn in years.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 5:15pm

    Re:

    by some dude

    could have done without hearing about your homemade stuff buddy...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 5:25pm

    Amazing!

    by Buzz

    "...we're going to sue Ford for making their getaway car." -- That is the best line right there. People will find any reason to sue Google or Microsoft (I personally dislike Microsoft, but they do suffer a degree of unnecessary abuse). Whenever someone suffers a "loss", they aim their legal weapons at the rich corporations. Not only is the lawsuit less credible that way, the corporations probably have far superior lawyers on standby than the actual robbers do. That is a big lose/lose right there. ^_^

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 5:33pm
    by Moi

    "That is a big lose/lose right there. ^_^
    , unless its a viable reason for sueing, but come on why would you sue microsoft for the same thing you just lost to google over, wouldnt the judge just look at the google case and copy that :P

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Aug 9th, 2007 @ 6:18pm

    Re:

    Pun intended?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 6:39am

    You'd think

    by drjones78@gmail.com

    They would try and pick some easier targets.. some small time porn co, going after some of the most powerful corps in the tech industry doesnt really seem like the most brilliant tactic.

    I'm sure MS's legal staff alone, dwarfs the amount of employees even working at Perfect 10, by many times..

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 8:33am
    by Angela

    Is this any different from suing gun manufacturers as a mean of controling weapon violence?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 10:50am

    Re:

    by Anonymous Coward

    yes

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 10:55am

    Re: Re:

    by Mike4

    could have done without hearing about your homemade stuff buddy...

    Why can't you picture the comment coming from song hot young chick.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 10:55am

    Re: Re:

    by Mike4

    could have done without hearing about your homemade stuff buddy...

    Why can't you picture the comment coming from some hot young chick.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Aug 10th, 2007 @ 11:04am

    Re:

    by drjones78

    Yea... because the small people taking on the gun manufacturers are going to get much more public support and sympathy than a porn company complaining that MS/Google is helping people steal their "smut".

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Feb 26th, 2008 @ 4:22pm

    What porn websites need to know.

    First, the weblink to http://paparotsy.tripod.com is just educational, so you get an idea of what risks performer's take in porn. Second, as far as this poor magazine, they need to upgrade their security features so no one can right click and copy anything down from their site and no one can press print and copy their Copyrighted magazine material. All the porn sites need to add these new security features in order to protect their Copyrighted meterial. How are you going to have contracts with performers stating the material is used for a film or a magazine, then it gets cut into streams and imageries of just sex, with no script... pirateered all over online, tormenting the performer's images with lowgrade quality pirated unwanted exploitation, totally against performer contracts, totally against Copyrights. You can't stop the pirateers from exploiting and profitting, but to these mags and film cos... get the upgraded software for no right clicks and no print outs. You need to protect your material. It's ruining your profits, it's downgrading the quality of the original works, it's exploiting the performer's in ways far beyong the original works and it's slave labor law violations of non-pay to performers. It's horrible, horrible. Only the mags and film cos can stop their material from being stolen by pirateers, at least what hasn't already... by upgrading their sites. If you can right click and copy or print... your site needs some serious help, because no one is going to care about some porn magazine or porn site losing profits, and it's the performers that are tormented the most by this unwanted exploitation that is like slave labor. By the way, all the piracy, whether you care about porn or not, makes the reputation of the US look bad, so think about that when these greedy pirateers profit... it might be your reputation down the gutter. Have you thought about that?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Dec 1st, 2008 @ 4:43am

    Re: What porn websites need to know.

    by alex

    Whenever someone suffers a "loss", they aim their legal weapons at the rich corporations. Not only is the lawsuit less credible that way, the corporations probably have far superior lawyers on standby than laptop batteries the actual robbers do. That is a big lose/lose right there.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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