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 enabling photography piracy


Google Accused of Enabling Photography Piracy

TIME - Tech

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. Google first introduced the feature in Jan. 2013. Previously, the search engine only displayed tiny thumbnails of images. In a statement released to TIME ahead of the filing, Getty argues that since image consumption is immediate, "there is little impetus to view the image on the original source site" once it's seen in high resolution on Google. The complaint comes less than a week after the European Union's antitrust commission charged Google with using unfair practices to promote its own services on Android devices.