Marketing Guy: Google Image Search Is A Honeypot Set Up By Aggressive Copyright Litigants

from the I-lost-a-lawsuit-and-all-I-got-is-this-lousy-advice dept

There are a lot of people out there that don't understand intellectual property issues. But perhaps no one misunderstands them quite as badly as internet marketing guru Dan Dasilva. And Dasilva has no excuse. He's been on the losing end of a copyright infringement lawsuit. Despite this, Dasilva continues to express his ignorance -- and proclaim his victimhood -- publicly on his YouTube channel. (h/t Techdirt reader Andy Gural)

Dasilva snagged an image from Google's image search and used it on a website he set up for one of his clients. The photographer who took the picture -- Michael Grecco -- sued Dasilva for infringement, ultimately ending up with $27,000 settlement and $10,000 in legal fees.

Dasilva has seemingly learned nothing from this experience. In fact, it appears the lawsuit may have actually made him stupider.

"The reason I was sued was because I used a picture that I found on Google Images," Dasilva says in his warning to other content creators. But instead of simply warning people about the dangers of infringing on photographers' copyrights, Dasilva decides to warn people about "malicious" people out there who are trying to profit off their copyright.

"I never really thought that there are malicious people out there… there are people out there who maliciously put pictures on the Internet," Dasilva states. "They copyright pictures that they take, and what they do is, they'll get a copyright on it, and they'll put it out on the Internet, and it's freely available on the Internet. If you run a Google search their image will appear."

Yes, Dasilva somehow believes copyrighted photos returned in Google image searches are honeypots created by photographers. But that only scratches the surface of Dasilva's ignorance. He also appears to believe photos need to be watermarked clearly with copyright symbols in at least 12 point text so people like him won't fall into the trap of being sued for grabbing images off the internet and treating them as their own.

There are more gems to be found in Dasilva's video, including his assertion he's not going to slow down his infringing use of other people's photos. But then again, what do you expect from a video that leads off with "my lawyer told me not to make this video?"

Dasilva appears to believe he should have been given a warning by Michael Grecco, rather than sued. But given his grasp of the underlying issues (and his plan to continue his infringing acts), it's hard to believe a mere cease-and-desist would have been sufficient. He does suggest viewers search for Creative Commons images, which is a start, but seems to imply it's a last-ditch option for people with a reasonable disinterest in being sued. He also fails to clarify that Creative Commons is not nearly the same thing as public domain. Some CC licenses forbid commercial use.

If Dasilva knew anything about Grecco, he would have known the photographer is an aggressive litigant. He's sued plenty of publishing industry giants for alleged infringement. Grecco's litigation history may appear troll-like, but he's not in the business of suing IP addresses en masse or targeting individuals who may have posted his photos on their personal blogs. Grecco's aggressive litigation stance in no way validates Dasilva's claims he's the real victim here. And it must be noted Grecco has taken a far more progressive stance than many engaged in the business of infringement litigation. When he noticed PDFs of his photography book being shared at filesharing sites, he took it to mean he needed to create an electronic version to serve this underserved market.

If Dasilva finds himself sued again, it's doubtful he'll be able to secure the same representation. Unfortunately, the fallout from his lawsuit means thousands of people looking to him for e-commerce advice have just been made stupider.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright infringement, dan dasilva, google images, michael grecco

And Out Come The Wolves: Now Getty Images Files EU Antitrust Complaint Against Google About Image Piracy

from the uh,-why-not-a-copyright-complaint? dept

With the EU making the first big antitrust move against Google in the EU over Android bundling practices (and more still expected over search), it seems that lots of other companies that have had trouble adapting to the internet are coming out of the woodwork to file complaints of their own (well, everyone except Microsoft, which has agreed to drop its complaints -- despite kicking off much of the EU antitrust focus on Google). Last week, we wrote about News Corp. confusingly arguing that Google News was an antitrust violation, because it both linked to its content and because it wouldn't link to its content (don't ask me, I don't understand it either).

Next up? Getty Images complaining about Google Images. According to Time, Getty has filed an antitrust complaint against Google in the EU, apparently arguing that Google's image search is undermining Getty's licensing business and "encouraging piracy."

Photography company Getty Images is accusing Google of scraping images from third party websites and encouraging piracy, adding a new wrinkle to the Mountain View, Calif.’s ongoing legal battles in Europe.

In its complaint to the European Union’s antitrust commission, Getty says Google Images, which displays full-screen slideshows of high-resolution copyrighted images, has hurt the stock agency’s licensing business as well as content creators worldwide. Google first introduced the feature in Jan. 2013. Previously, the search engine only displayed tiny thumbnails of images.

Getty has not actually released the complaint but put out a press release with a few more details and had its General Counsel Yoko Miyashita, post an open letter. The big issue, it seems, for Getty is that three years ago Google made its Images search act a little different, in that you can display full resolution images, rather than just purely thumbnails. Getty claims that this is decreasing the rate of clickthroughs to its site, where it might be able to extract some licensing fees.

Getty, of course, has a troubled history with the internet. It has a pretty long history of fairly idiotic bouts of pure copyright trolling, demanding cash as a bully, often in cases where there was no legitimate infringement at all. We were cautiously optimistic a couple of years ago, when the company finally started experimenting with offering up images for free, via a system that would let you embed many images (though there were some concerns about the setup and conditions).

Reading between the lines, it sounds like that effort has not taken off to the level Getty had hoped... and rather than recognizing that people just aren't comfortable with embedding images from Getty (or that they don't really know about the program), the company appears to be blaming Google Image search. And that's doubly weird since an actual analysis of why Getty's internet efforts haven't taken off shows that it's got nothing to do with Google's Image search and everything to do with cheap stock photo sites and Getty's inability to understand basic search engine marketing practices. Rather than take that to heart and adapt, the company joins many others in just whining about another company that is more successful.

The whole complaint is confusing. Most people searching Google Images aren't going to be licensing a photo in the first place. People who are looking to license a photo go elsewhere. So it's not like Google Images is likely to have a real impact on Getty. But that's not how Getty sees it:

Because image consumption is immediate, unlike other mediums searchable through Google, such as news or music, once an image is displayed in high-resolution, large format, there is little impetus to view the image on the original source site. These changes have allowed Google to reinforce its role as the internet’s dominant search engine, maintaining monopoly over site traffic, engagement data and advertising spend. This has also promoted piracy, resulting in widespread copyright infringement, turning users into accidental pirates.

Of course, this is interesting, because you'll note that Getty isn't filing a copyright case here, it's filing an antitrust case. If this were really about "piracy" why not file a copyright case? It's because Getty knows damn well it would lose any such copyright case. And it would lose badly. So it's filing this antitrust case as a sort of backdoor copyright case, hoping that in the EU's current hatred towards Google, regulators won't pay attention to the nuances.

Getty Images’ General Counsel, Yoko Miyashita says: “Getty Images represents over 200,000 photojournalists, content creators and artists around the world who rely on us to protect their ability to be compensated for their work. Google’s behavior is adversely affecting not only our contributors, but the lives and livelihoods of artists around the word – present and future. By standing in the way of a fair marketplace for images, Google is threatening innovation, and jeopardizing artists’ ability to fund the creation of important future works. Artists need to earn a living in order to sustain creativity and licensing is paramount to this; however, this cannot happen if Google is siphoning traffic and creating an environment where it can claim the profits from individuals’ creations as its own.”

I've read this four times now and none of it makes sense. Again, people searching Google Images aren't looking to license images. Getty is breezily mixing up very different markets because of just how weak its overall argument is here. Also, the whole "artists need to earn a living" bit is similarly misleading. It's a favorite line that comes up over and over again but is bullshit. Most artists don't earn a living doing artwork. That's just a fact. That's true with copyright and without. It's not the copyright that pays people. It's having a good business model that people find worth supporting. That's it.

And, really, if Getty were really in this to help photographers get paid, then why is it so easy to find photographers online bitching about the ridiculously low royalties that Getty Images pays? This isn't about helping photographers get paid. This is about Getty Images and the fact that it hasn't figured out how to make a compelling product on the internet.

And, going back to the way in which Google displays images, it does so because it knows that it's providing a better consumer experience. When people are looking for images online, they want to see the images, and thus Google is delivering what people want. Getty may not like that, because it hoped that Google would fail to deliver what people want, thereby forcing them over to the also terrible Getty Images experience, but it's difficult to see how that's an antitrust issue. If Getty wants to compete, why doesn't it compete? Build a better image search engine and layer its business model on top of it.

But, no, instead, it whines to the EU about "antitrust" and pretends that it's helping photographers, all while making sure they get only a tiny percentage of any money that Getty actually makes from selling their photos.

Filed Under: antitrust, competition, copyright, eu, google images, stock images
Companies: getty images, google

Evangelist Adorns Biblical Child Rearing Book With 'Modern Family' Portrait He Found Via Google

from the the-wicked-google/tv/gays-made-me-do-it dept

Maybe it's because I've had to learn how to find Creative Commons images for use in posts, but I always thought that the outrage over Google image searches was silly. I mean, I get that there is such a thing as copyright, but when Germany can't recognize that an image search isn't a violation of the law, then there has to be a mental breakdown somewhere. Likewise, when my Australian friends sue Google because a search of their name in the images tab happens to bring up pictures of the violent criminal that attacked them...I mean, what the hell?

Now, having said all of that, most folks are at least smart enough to know that you shouldn't go plucking around the internet, yoinking pictures without doing at least a cursory inquiry into what that image is and who might own it, all for the use of your for-profit eBook. But, as Brig C. McCoy writes in to tell us, most folks doesn't equal all folks. Meet Doug Sehorne. Doug's an evangelist who wrote a book called Bible Principles Of Child Discipline (from the Book of Proverbs). Oh, and hey, here's the cover.

See the problem? No, not the horrific plain white text over the blue background. The image Doug Sehorne used for his book on how to go about raising your children Old Testament-style is a mock photo from ABC's Modern Family. In case you're not familiar with Modern Family, the show includes a functional homosexual couple with an adopted child. A bunch of people pointed this out to Doug, at which point he promptly apologized, admitted he should have known better than to just use images from TV shows, and thanked everyone very much for the help.

Nah, just kidding. He melted down faster than ice cream in Hell. From his Facebook page:

FALSELY ACCUSED!

Well, I just got a phone call about the picture I used on my Book about Child Discipline. Evidently it is from a wicked TV show involving a gay couple! Here is the situation.

1. I do not even have a TV and have not for 35 years.

2. I never heard of the TV show.

3. I got the image from a search on Google images, which I assumed were not copyrighted, etc.

4. Everyone who knows me, knows I would never condone such wickedness as sodomy or even TV.

Okay, show of hands: who wants to take advice on raising children from this guy? Yeah, I didn't think so. Now, Doug's book, which advises parents that they cannot raise children without a good and sturdy paddle (and, no, I'm not making that up), used a copyrighted image for the cover and this was his response to being called out on it? Lord knows (get it?) we're not big on the restrictive nature of copyright, but you have to at least take a look at what you're using. Not having a television (because it's apparently wicked? WTF?) is no excuse, since he clearly has a computer and that image had to have come from somewhere.

Apparently you can't teach evangelicals about copyright without a good and sturdy paddle.

Filed Under: copyright, doug sehorne, google images, images, modern family