Google are battling against a court case in Germany that could see their image search function banned.Last month saw verdict go against them in Hamburg as Michael Bernhard and Thomas Horn took Google and several other search engines to the district court. Mr Bernhard, a photographer, and Mr Horn, who own the rights to frames of the "Psykoman" comic, claim that when their images come up on a search engine their copyright is being infringed.
The search engines - Google, Deutsche Telekom, Freenet.de and AOL Germany - are appealing against the decision but no date has yet been set for the Hamburg court to hear their case. Whilst the appeals are pending the search engines will be allowed to continue with their image searches.
If the decision is upheld, Google and friends will need the permission of copyright holders before they display thumbnails of their work with the court saying, "It doesn't matter that thumbnails are much smaller than original pictures and are displayed in a lower resolution."
The court also suggested that Google could replace the images with text describing them, something the company refuted by saying it was not practical or user-friendly.
Google's Kay Oberbeck expressed the company's disappointment at the ruling, especially as they have fought similar battles in other countries and gained the backing of other European courts. The problem normally arises over the fine line between limited, legal use of copyrighted material and violating intellectual property laws.
The Google spokesperson also pointed out that there is software available that hides images or text from search engines.
