{"id":7646,"date":"2013-02-26T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7646"},"modified":"2026-02-02T08:52:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T14:52:52","slug":"standing-up-against-googles-new-image-search-and-the-copyright-issues-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/26\/standing-up-against-googles-new-image-search-and-the-copyright-issues-involved\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing up against Google’s new Image Search and the copyright issues involved – Class action lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

No photo for this post but it is important to any one who photographs and posts their images to the web. It is important to artists\u00a0and \u00a0graphic designers.<\/p>\n

Please feel free to pass on the link to anyone you know who is a photographer or an artist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since Google made changes to its Image Search on January 25th, 2013, many photographers and artists have voiced complaints about the drop in visitors to their sites, for those that have ads they have had a drop in income from those ads and one of the other complaints is about Google hot linking to the full sized version of the images which allows infringers to easily illegally download those images to their computers.<\/p>\n

I have written two posts about the changes Google made to their Image Search and many other photographers\/webmasters have too because Google has over-stepped with their new UI.<\/p>\n

Is Google\u2019s New Image Search Violating Their Own Policies? The Law?<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Google needs to remove the hotlinks on Image Search to our files immediately, remove the “View Original File” button and stop facilitating the unauthorized distribution of our Copyrighted work. Anything less is criminal.<\/p>\n

Google has become the biggest image scraper of the Millennium<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

You might wonder why I have used this title but since the 25th of January changes have been made to Google Image Search that have infuriated webmasters, photographers, artists and many more.<\/p>\n

NOT COOL, GOOGLE.<\/strong><\/em> I have no doubt there will be a legal challenge here, as I simply can\u2019t understand the legality of Google itself effectively distributing CONTENT from other people\u2019s websites.<\/p>\n

I’m still riled up, I’ve been searching out other blog posts, following a thread that Google started themselves on Google Groups and watching the traffic to my blog and web site drop while seeing the rates of infringement of my images increase. Last week alone I sent in over 100 DMCA takedown requests to Pinterest. That is JUST Pinterest.<\/p>\n

WE<\/strong> have to stand up to Google to make this stop.<\/p>\n

I said I would be happy to take part in a Class Action suit against Google and due to a recent conversation with an attorney I realize that class action suit is entirely possible and I want to inform as many photographers as I can about it.<\/p>\n

I had a very interesting conversation today with attorney William R. Restis of Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP\u00a0that was very informative about the possibility of a class action law suit against Google with the focus being on the copyright issues that\u00a0their new image search raises.<\/p>\n

What do we need to do to become involved with a class action law suit against Google for the changes they made to their Image Search?<\/p>\n

Contact William R. Restis of Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP. This is the same firm that filed a class action law suit against Instagram in December of 2012 for their change in Terms of Service, a suit that forced Instagram to reconsider those changes to their TOS.<\/p>\n

I urge you to contact William R. Restis and hear what he has to say.<\/p>\n

William R. Restis
\nFinkelstein & Krinsk LLP
\nThe Koll Center
\n501 W. Broadway, Suite 1250
\nSan Diego, CA 92101-3579
\nEmail: wrr@classactionlaw.com<\/a>
\nTEL:\u00a0 619.238.1333, Ext. 25
\nFAX: 619.238.5425<\/p>\n

We do have to stand up against Google on this matter to protect our copyrights.<\/p>\n