Monday, March 20, 2006

How can search engines legally re-display internet content for the purpose of generating revenue?

Q: How can search engines legally re-display internet content for the purpose of generating revenue?
A: First, the revenue is not generated by selling a copy of the work. Rather the income comes from advertising. However, making money from copying is not a requirement for copyright violation. Therefore, the search engines must still comply with copyright law.
Copyright violation requires a copying. The search engines do not appear to be copying entire websites, so there is probably not a copying of a substantial portion of the work. 17 U.S.C. § 101 defines derivative work and would preclude search engines results from being such because they are not changing the copyrighted work (the web sites). Instead, they are merely referencing a small portion of the websites. Additionally, the search results are not "fixed" because of their temporary nature or "transitory duration," and they may not even be considered copies of the works.
Lastly, under a fair use analysis, the search engines are actually adding value to the website content by directing targeted traffic to the site.
In a related story, Perfect 10 tests copyright law - An adult website is suing Google and A9 for copyright infringement for displaying thumbnails of valuable copyrighted photographs in search results.

No comments: