Google Wins Porn Thumbnail Case

A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Google can continue showing thumbnails from porn sites in its image search results. Porn site Perfect 10 sued Google in 2004 for copyright violations for displaying thumbnails from the site. Yesterday, the 9th circuit court in San Francisco overturned a lower court's ruling, deciding that the images fell under the fair use exemption. While the case is seen as a victory for search and a defeat for the entertainment industry, the court also delivered a minor slap to Google. The 9th instructed the lower district court to look into whether or not Google took precautions to keep Perfect 10's pictures from being made available for copying.