Google gets Thumbs up From German Court to use Small Picture Previews

The German Federal Supreme Court has ruled that Google could use and display a thumbnail preview of a picture taken from an artist's web site, because she had not sent a signal to say that she objected to this. Search engines like Google scour the web for material to include in their search results but will not index the material if the source web site contains code that disallows permission to use it. Google said that since she had not included code that disallowed permission, she had effectively consented to Google's use of the image in a small form for search purposes. The German court agreed. Google has previously won other cases in the US that allowed for this practice.

Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor of www.Upload-IT.com , comments: 'English courts have not yet ruled on this issue. Although a case like this from Germany or the US will not bind English courts, it may be seen as persuasive. It is an open issue whether search