This from CEPIC: ‘On behalf of thousands of photographers and picture agencies CEPIC, the Center of the Picture Industry, submitted a formal antitrust complaint against Google’s use of third-party images before the European Commission.’
‘The complaint was submitted on 8 November 2013 by CEPIC, supported by an unprecedented coalition of European and US trade associations representing thousands of photographers and picture agencies worldwide.’
Here are some of the points prompting the complaint:
• Using image providers’ original works, Google diverts traffic from their sites to its own services.
• The search engine has turned itself into a provider of “free” content and fuels online piracy at its sole profit.
• Since Google denies sophisticated rights expression technologies, photographers and picture agencies cannot protect themselves against this increasing exploitation.
• Google’s revised commitment proposals of 21st October 2013 in the Commission’s pending competition investigation do not address image providers’ concerns.
Full details at CEPIC
