The search giant will lodge one appeal covering both
cases, it told OUT-LAW.COM.
Photographer Michael Bernhard took the case against Google when
thumbnail versions of his photographs appeared in the Google Image
Search service.
Artist Thomas Horn also won his case over the appearance in a
Google search of comic images in which he owns the copyright.
The court ruled that the fact that the pictures displayed were
smaller than the original images was irrelevant, according to news
agency Bloomberg.
"It doesn't matter that thumbnails are much smaller than
original pictures and are displayed in a lower resolution," the
ruling said in Bernhard's case, according to the agency. "By using
photos in thumbnails, no new work is created."
Google said that it will deal with both rulings through one
appeal. "Google is disappointed and intends to appeal the ruling to
the German Supreme Court because we believe that services like
Google Image Search are entirely legal," a company statement
said.
"Today’s decision is very bad for internet users in Germany, it
is a major step backwards for German ebusiness in general, and it
is bad for the thousands of websites who receive valuable traffic
through Image Search and similar services," it said.
The use of small versions of images in Google's image search
facility has proved controversial before. The US Court of Appeals
ruled last year that Google's creation and display of thumbnail
versions of copyrighted images was not a copyright violation.
A lower court had said that Google infringed the copyright in
images owned by nude pictures publisher Perfect 10. The Court of
Appeals agreed that copies of the images were made and distributed
by Google but said that that activity qualified for protection as
'fair use' of the material.
Under US copyright law, a 'transformative use' of a work an be a
fair use, i.e. where a work is put to a use completely different to
that of the original.
The Court said that in the case of Google's search technology
the use was sufficiently different to qualify. "A search engine
provides social benefit by incorporating an original work into a
new work, namely, an electronic reference tool," said the
ruling.
