CORPORATE COPYING OF IMAGES

Q: Does the operator of a "visual search engine" on the Web have the right to include photographers' images in the search engine's database without getting permission from the copyright owners?

            A: Yes, according to the recent case Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. In that case, a federal district court judge in California held that visual search engine operator Arriba did not infringe the copyrights in two million images it copied from the Web because Arriba's use of the images was fair use. Copyright attorneys were surprised at the decision (which may be reversed by the appeals court).

            For detailed information on copyright, check out the PhotoSource International Copyright Q & A for stock photographers: http://www.photosource.com/copyright.html .