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Thumbnail pictures of nude photographs displayed by Google do not infringe on the copyrights of the image owner, Perfect 10.

Court Is OK With Sexy Google Images

Google had lost a court case involving Perfect 10, but the appeals panel for the US Ninth Circuit tossed out the lower court's ruling. The case, which started in 2004, has been considered a test of copyright law versus doctrines of fair use on the Internet.

In this appeal, fair use won out over the copyright claim. The Washington Post cited how the search process uses thumbnails in a different way than the original images:

"We conclude that the significantly transformative nature of Google's search engine, particularly in light of its public benefit, outweighs Google's superseding and commercial uses of the thumbnails in this case," Judge Sandra S. Ikuta wrote for the panel.

Google isn't out of hot water yet with Perfect 10. One decision from the earlier court case found that Google was not liable when Internet users linked to sites containing original Perfect 10 pictures, as found in their search results. That decision will now be reviewed.