Berlin - Google (NASD: GOOG) has appealed a pair of court losses in Germany that found that its Image Search service, which indexes thumbnail images of pictures from across the Web, violates the image owners' copyrights, the Associated Press reported.

"We are really disappointed about the ruling," Kay Oberbeck, a spokesman for Google in Germany, told AP. "We believe Google Image Search is entirely legal."

Oberbeck added the other European courts have supported the indexing of thumbnail images; U.S. courts have also mostly concluded that such services are a "fair use" of copyrights.

Pending the appeal, Google and the other image hosts named in the lawsuits -- including AOL Germany and Deutsche Telekom -- may continue to operate their services.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/4fc38 (AP)

http://snipurl.com/4fcbe (DMW previous coverage)