Court Rules Against Perfect 10 in Google Copyright Battle

SAN FRANCISCO — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Perfect 10 yesterday in its long-running copyright infringement battle with Google.

Perfect 10 claimed that Google’s Image Search significantly poached and posted free images from its website between 2005 and 2010 that resulted in loses of over $50 million from 1996 to 2007, pushing the company close to bankruptcy.

The federal appeals court in Pasadena affirmed a lower court's decision not to grant a preliminary injunction against Google Inc., finding that the Perfect 10 website could not show it had or would suffer irreparable harm.

Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote in the ruling, "While being forced into bankruptcy qualifies as a form of irreparable harm, Perfect 10 has not established that the requested injunction would forestall that fate.

"Perfect 10 has not shown a sufficient causal connection between irreparable harm to Perfect 10's business and Google's operation of its search engine.”

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz and a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit unanimously blocked the bid to grant the injunction. The panel found that Perfect 10 had failed to "submit a statement from even a single former subscriber who ceased paying for Perfect 10's service because of the content freely available via Google."

The panel also said that Perfect 10 did not prove that it was in sound financial shape before the alleged infringements.

It wasn’t all bad news for Perfect 10 this week however. The company scored a legal victory in its $5 million copyright suit against file-sharing membership site Megaupload, after a judge advanced the case by ruling that the file-storage site may be liable for direct and contributory infringement.

And in June Perfect 10 filed a separate copyright infringement suit against file storage site Depositfiles.com's for harboring its content. The site's operators were hit with a $5 million suit by Perfect 10, which called the business "not a legitimate file storage company and has none of the characteristics of one."

XBIZ was not immediately able to reach Perfect 10 for comment on yesterday's ruling at post time.

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Ohio AG Threatens Action Against 'Major' Adult Sites Over AV Law

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today that his office is sending "notice of violation" letters to 19 adult websites for failure to comply with the state's recently enacted age verification law.

Ukrainian Content Creators on Hook for Nearly $10M in Back Taxes

Content creators in Ukraine owe the equivalent of $9.3 million in back taxes, according to the country's State Tax Service.

Updated: European Patent Office Board of Appeals Revokes EIS GmbH Patent

The European Patent Office (EPO) Board of Appeals last week ruled in favor of pleasure brand LELO in the company's ongoing dispute with Satisfyer parent company EIS GmbH.

Update: Pornhub Will Not Block Ohio, Despite AV Law

Pornhub parent company Aylo will not block access to its websites in Ohio, despite new state age verification rules that came into effect Sept. 30.

Judge Dismisses Some Claims in 'Children of Pornhub' Trafficking Suit

A United States district judge on Friday dismissed some but not all claims against Aylo in a long-running case involving CSAM allegations featured in the influential 2020 New York Times article “The Children of Pornhub.”

Arcom to Expand AV Enforcement to Smaller Adult Sites

The president of French media regulator Arcom revealed on Thursday that the agency plans to escalate its enforcement of age verification rules to include smaller adult sites, starting in late 2025 or early 2026.

Pornhub to Shut Down Access in Arizona Over Age Verification

Aylo will geoblock Pornhub across Arizona starting Sept. 26, when the state’s age verification law, HB 2112, goes into effect.

French Telecoms Mogul Ignites AV Firestorm With Free VPN, Sarcastic Tweet

French billionaire Xavier Niel, founder of telecommunications giant Iliad, sparked a heated debate this week when he appeared to admit that the company's Free Mobile wireless carrier integrated no-cost VPN into its service specifically to circumvent age verification restrictions on adult content.

UPDATED: Michigan Legislators Propose Online Porn Ban

Michigan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to distribute pornography via the internet in the state.

EU Advocate General: France Can Require Foreign Sites to Implement AV

An advocate general of the European Union’s Court of Justice on Thursday advised the court to rule that France may require pornographic websites based in other EU states to implement age verification in accordance with French law.

Show More