EFF Sides With Google Over Perfect 10 on Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO — Holding to its original position, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, siding with Google in a case brought by adult website and magazine publisher Perfect 10 alleging that the company’s Image Search violates U.S. copyright law.

The case, which has become much larger in scope than the original dispute between Perfect 10 and Google’s Image Search, pits the search engine against virtually every major copyright holder in the U.S., according to Perfect 10 owner Norman Zada.

“Every major copyright holder is on Perfect 10’s side here,” Zada told XBIZ. “Google has become one of the largest copyright infringers of all time. They have taken my content, organized it, categorized it, placed adds around it and made a huge profit.”

Briefs siding with Perfect 10’s position have been filed by the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, among others.

While Zada sees Google as the source of online copyright infringement, the EFF brief argues that the company merely facilitates information.

“Perfect 10 wants to hold Google responsible for the misdeeds of the websites it links to," EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann said. "No search engine could survive if that were the rule, nor, for that matter, could most bloggers or other web publishers. If Perfect 10 succeeds in convincing the court that in-line linking and framing of images constitutes a public display or distribution of copyrighted work, then millions of web publishers and bloggers will suddenly be on the wrong side of copyright law — as well as the millions of web users who may follow a link to a website with infringing content."

While the court is not expected to rule on the argument for several months, Zada, who believes that the economic future of all copyright holders hangs in the balance, said that Google is not as innocent as the EFF makes it out to be.

“Google’s arrogance is virtually unheard of in the corporate world,” Zada said. “In my opinion, they may have started off with good intentions when they developed Image Search, but their corporate bottom line means they are now making unauthorized copies of everything.”

Zada also said that he believes Google’s fair use argument to be without merit, saying that the exception to the copyright law is mostly for educational use, not for-profit ventures.

A Google Image Search for “Isabelle Funaro,” a model who has appeared in Perfect 10, returned 118 results. None of the results link to the Perfect 10 website, which does not have an affiliate program. According to Zada, all nude photos of the model returned from the Google search are Perfect 10 content.

Many of the results thumbnails link to third-party sites with full-sized Perfect 10 images.

Text on Google’s Page Creator site warns against using copyrighted material and linking to images hosted on another publisher’s site, a practice referred to as “stealing bandwidth,” since the image loads on the hosted site, rather than the site from which the user views it.

According to Zada, Google’s business model operates in direct contradiction to its stated warnings regarding copyright infringement and bandwidth stealing because the company profits greatly from third party sites that offer little more than a few images surrounded by Google AdSense ads.

In opposition, von Lohmann argued in the EFF brief that Google merely provides a link to third-party sites that contain Perfect 10 images, but does not actually “display” full-size images as defined by U.S. copyright law.

The EFF’s brief was filed on behalf of the EFF and the Library Copyright Alliance.

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

Florida AG Sues EU-Based Adult Companies for Failing to Age-Verify Users

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit Monday with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida against five EU-based adult companies for allegedly failing to require age verification before allowing access to adult content.

SkyPrivate Launches 'Telegram Pay-Per-Minute' Feature

SkyPrivate has launched a new pay-per-minute (PPM) private show option on Telegram.

Pineapple Support to Host 'Money and Mental Health' Online Event

Pineapple Support is hosting a free, online event to help performers balance financial wellbeing with mental health, Aug. 18-19.

Arcom Warns 5 Adult Sites Over Age Verification

French media regulator Arcom has sent enforcement notices to the operators of five adult websites that the agency says have failed to implement age verification as required under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.

MojoHost Debuts NVIDIA Blackwell-Powered Hosting

MojoHost has announced the launch of NVIDIA Blackwell-powered hosting featuring RTX 6000 Pro MaxQ GPUs.

FSC: Identity Theft Targeting Adult Performers

The Free Speech Coalition has put out an alert warning of an individual found to be targeting adult performers for identity theft.

Assylum.com Implements New Age Verification System

Assylum.com has introduced an age verification system across its member sites.

European Commission to Assess Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX Compliance With Digital Services Act

The European Commission plans to conduct a study to determine how well adult sites Pornhub, XVideos and XNXX are addressing illegal content and other potential harms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

German Higher Court Upholds Ban on PornHub, YouPorn

The Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday upheld a “network ban” on Aylo-owned adult sites Pornhub and YouPorn for failing to comply with German age verification regulations.

Alabama Notifying Adult Sites of New Tax Set to Take Effect Sept. 1

The Alabama Department of Revenue has begun sending notices to adult site operators about a new 10% tax on their revenues, set to be enforced starting Sept. 1.

Show More