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In Perfect 10 v. Google, Perfect 10 distributed copyrighted photographs of nude models through its adult website and magazine, and as downloadable cell phone wallpaper.

Perfect 10 filed suit against Google claiming that Google's display of thumbnail images and its framing of the underlying infringing websites constituted direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Many images had been copied and displayed on third-party websites without Perfect 10's permission. The third-party websites were cataloged by Google’s search engine.

Google launched an image search function. Google started displaying results as a grid of thumbnail-sized images, stored on Google's servers. Clicking on a thumbnail led to a link to the original site where the image could be found. The full-size image was not stored on Google's servers.