Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

In Ninth Circuit decision in Perfect 10 v. Google, the court held that a website that frames content by providing an in-line link to the copyright holder's site does not engage in a public display or public distribution in violation of the copyright holder's rights because the framed content is not being stored on the framer's server.

The Court stated that while in-line linking and framing may cause computer users to believe they are viewing a single Google webpage, the federal Copyright Act, unlike the federal Trademark Act, does not protect a copyright holder against acts that cause consumer confusion.

Google's display of thumbnail images stored on its server in connection with Google's image search engine represents fair use.