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By Samuel Fineman
May 30, 2007

An online pornographic magazine's copyright infringement suit against Google now requires some complex legal maneuvering after a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel severely limited what it could argue.

Perfect 10 magazine, which offers a subscriber-only service that claims to have photos of 'the world's most natural beautiful women,' sued Google in 2004 for providing thumbnail versions of images from the magazine. A district court had found at a preliminary hearing that Google's images probably constituted direct infringement. But last month, the federal appellate court disagreed.

The magazine is not likely to prevail against Google's fair-use defense, which allows the courts to avoid rigidly applying the copyright statute when 'it would stifle the very creativity which that law is designed to foster,' the court ruled, citing Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 236 (1990).

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