IndustryCourt: Google Image Search Didn’t ‘Irreparably Harm’ Perfect 10’s Porn Business

Court: Google Image Search Didn’t ‘Irreparably Harm’ Perfect 10’s Porn Business

Adult website and magazine Perfect 10 has failed to prove to a federal appeals court that Google nearly drove it to bankruptcy by indexing and showing thumbnail images of Perfect 10’s nude female models in Google Image search results for free.

perfect-10-magazineAdult website and magazine Perfect 10 has failed to prove to a federal appeals court that Google nearly drove it to bankruptcy by indexing and showing thumbnail images of Perfect 10’s nude female models in Google Image search results for free.

“While being forced into bankruptcy qualifies as a form of irreparable harm, Perfect 10 has not established that the requested injunction would forestall that fate,” wrote Judge Sandra Ikuta. “Perfect 10 has not shown a sufficient causal connection between irreparable harm to Perfect 10’s business and Google’s operation of its search engine.”

Perfect 10 claims Google has caused the website to lose $50 million in membership fees and advertising revenue. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Perfect 10 failed to show a causal connection, however, by not providing a statement from any former subscribers and by not proving it was sound financially before the copyright infringements.

The softcore porn site’s battle with Google dates back to November 2004, when Perfect 10 accused Google of providing Internet users with at least 800,000 unauthorized links to Perfect 10’s models, while also making money off websites that were monetizing Perfect 10 photos with Google AdSense.

Another reality Perfect 10 may have to face is that porn just isn’t selling like it used to due to numerous other free options, as noted by the Wall Street Journal.

Below are links to our prior news coverage of the dispute between Perfect 10 and Google. Also see “Tiny sex images on Google get okay from court” from Reuters in 2007.

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