Getty Images Says Google Is Promoting Photo Piracy

It’s no secret that Google is facing some legal issues in Europe, and the latest one to join the fold comes courtesy of US photography agency Getty Images. Apparently, Getty aims to file a formal complaint with the antitrust commission of the European Union, the same commission that filed formal charges against Google regarding its Android mobile operating system. Getty’s problem is that Google Images has a bad habit of scrapping images from third-party sites and making them available for download thus promoting image piracy. The company’s representatives have stated that because Google Images shows copyrighted photos in large resolution formats, users no longer need to visit Getty’s site, wich actually puts those images up for sale.

In January 2013, Google has made a change to its Images service in order to allow it to serve up images in large formats, which caused Getty’s traffic to take a nosedive. Therefore, this is not exactly a new problem for Getty, and even though the two companies tried to come up with a solution at some point, sources indicate that Google gave Getty two limited options, one of which was to accept the situation while the other was to completely opt out of its image search service. Getty Images’ general counsel, Yoko Miyashita, has stated the following:

“Getty Images represents over 200,000 photojournalists, content creators and artists around the world who rely on us to protect their ability to be compensated for their work. Google’s behavior is adversely affecting not only our contributors, but the lives and livelihoods of artists around the world, present and future.”