Los Angeles - A federal appeals court has ruled that Google is not infringing copyrights with the "thumbnail" photo previews it shows on its search results.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that found Google had infringed the copyrights of adult entertainment publisher Perfect 10 when its search engine indexed thumbnails of unauthorized Perfect 10 photos on third-party websites.

The court found the thumbnails to be a "fair use" of the images, but said that search engines may in fact be liable when they link to illegal copies of copyrighted content.

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Perfect 10, which sued Google along with Amazon.com's A9 search service in 2004, told the Associated Press it may file an appeal.

"This confirms what we've believed all along -- that a search engine cannot knowingly facilitate access to infringing material without consequence," Perfect 10 general counsel Daniel Cooper told AP.

Related Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070517/ap_on_hi_te/google_lawsuit_4 (AP)

http://www.perfect10.com