Google Accused of Enabling Photography Piracy

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - April 27, 2016 - PRLog -- 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.

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. By making these images available to download, Google has "also promoted piracy, resulting in widespread copyright infringement, turning users into accidental pirates," Getty claims.

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. http://www.appsnape.com/google-accused-of-enabling-photog...