Perfect 10 vs Google

The soft-core porn website Perfect 10 failed to show that Google's search engine caused its looming bankruptcy by offering the site's pictures of nude women for free, the 9th Circuit has ruled.

The federal appeals court in Pasadena rejected Perfect 10's request for a preliminary injunction in an ongoing battle with Google over alleged copyright infringements, finding that the website could not show it had or would suffer irreparable harm.

Perfect 10 claimed in California's Central District Court that Google's web crawler software had destroyed its business model because it makes thumbnails of Perfect 10's images available without a subscription.

The court panel found that Perfect 10 had failed to submit a statement from even a single former subscriber who ceased paying for Perfect 10's service because of the content freely available via Google.

After 8 years the legal battle between Google and adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 has been put to rest. The latter accused the search giant of a variety of copyright infringement breaches which included Google's use of cached images. The case has now been dismissed without the option for further appeal.

In 2004 Google was sued by Perfect 10. The adult publisher demanded a permanent injunction against Google to prevent it from copying and distributing thumbnails of its images, and to stop the search engine from linking to websites where Perfect 10 content was hosted illegally.

Initially Perfect 10 scored a substantial victory as the court agreed with the adult company's position on Google's use of thumbnails. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed this ruling stating that this utilization of thumbnails amounted to fair use.

What followed was a lengthy legal battle in which the adult company targeted Google with a wide range of secondary liability claims. These claims were often supported by the MPAA and RIAA, and opposed by digital rights groups such as the EFF. After nearly 8 years of litigation and two failed requests for a Supreme Court review, the case continued at the District Court where both sides accused each other of breaking the rules. Notable is Perfect 10's quite unconventional last-minute attempt to find more dirt on Google. Earlier this year the company called on the public to provide evidence that Google was aiding or abetting copyright infringements. The publisher went as far as offering a $25,000 bounty, which is still listed on its website.