Kelly

ORDER ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

On apparent first impression, the Court holds the use by an Internet “visual search engine” of others’ copyrighted images is a prima facie copyright violation, but it may be justified under the “fair use” doctrine. The Court finds that, under the particular circumstances of this case, the “fair use” doctrine applies, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is not violated.

Defendant’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Plaintiffs First and Second Claims for Relief is GRANTED. Plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment is DENIED.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant Ditto (formerly known as Ar-riba) operates a “visual search engine” on the Internet. Like other Internet search engines, it allows a user to obtain a list of related Web content in response to a search query entered by the user. Unlike other Internet search engines, Defendant’s retrieves images instead of descriptive text. It produces a list of reduced, “thumbnail” pictures related to the user’s query.

During the period when most of the relevant events in this case occurred, Defendant’s visual search engine was known as the Arriba Vista Image Searcher. By “clicking”…