Possible Class Action lawsuit in the works against Google Image Search
Discussion
0 replies
Posted by Mia McPherson on February 27, 2013 at 8:16 AM
Terry Sohl wrote a post last month about the changes that Google made on January 25th to its Image Search. The changes they made have caused drastic reductions in visits to photographers and artists web sites plus they started hot linking directly to the larger sized images on our web sites making image theft that much easier for image thieves and scraper sites.
I have talked to a class action attorney from the same firm that filed a class action suit against Instagram in December for the changes to their Terms of Service that was widely discussed on the net because of the copyright issues involved. Instagram back tracked on its new TOS because of the class action suit.
William Restis is the attorney I spoke with and his focus for this possible class action suit is on the copyright issues raised by the changes Google made to its image search.
I am considering becoming a plaintiff in this class action lawsuit because I feel Google has gone to far. I emailed Jim Erhardt and asked if I could post the contact information for William Restis and his firm Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP in case other photographers here want to contact William Restis and find out more information about this possible class action lawsuit.
Photographers don't have large corporations like Sony who work hard at protecting the copyrights of musicians but that does not mean we don't have a voice. I know I want Google to stop hotlinking directly to my files, if they take down my hotlinked images on their members Blogger and BlogSpot blogs then why does Google think they can do it?
Anyway, here is the contact information for William Restis in case you want to speak with him about this mess and the class action lawsuit.
William R. Restis
Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP
The Koll Center
501 W. Broadway, Suite 1250
San Diego, CA 92101-3579
Email: wrr@classactionlaw.com
TEL: 619.238.1333, Ext. 25
FAX: 619.238.5425
Discussion
0 repliesTerry's discussion here on NPN http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/bbs.cgi?a=vm&mr=73610&CGISESSID=40dd9cd855c48f81f9bee1a5c29b22c4&u=3209
I have done quite a bit of research into this mess and have done a few posts on my blog about it:
Google has become the biggest image scraper of the Millennium
Is Google’s New Image Search Violating Their Own Policies? The Law?
I have talked to a class action attorney from the same firm that filed a class action suit against Instagram in December for the changes to their Terms of Service that was widely discussed on the net because of the copyright issues involved. Instagram back tracked on its new TOS because of the class action suit.
William Restis is the attorney I spoke with and his focus for this possible class action suit is on the copyright issues raised by the changes Google made to its image search.
I am considering becoming a plaintiff in this class action lawsuit because I feel Google has gone to far. I emailed Jim Erhardt and asked if I could post the contact information for William Restis and his firm Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP in case other photographers here want to contact William Restis and find out more information about this possible class action lawsuit.
Photographers don't have large corporations like Sony who work hard at protecting the copyrights of musicians but that does not mean we don't have a voice. I know I want Google to stop hotlinking directly to my files, if they take down my hotlinked images on their members Blogger and BlogSpot blogs then why does Google think they can do it?
Anyway, here is the contact information for William Restis in case you want to speak with him about this mess and the class action lawsuit.
William R. Restis
Finkelstein & Krinsk LLP
The Koll Center
501 W. Broadway, Suite 1250
San Diego, CA 92101-3579
Email: wrr@classactionlaw.com
TEL: 619.238.1333, Ext. 25
FAX: 619.238.5425