Getty Hits Microsoft with Copyright Infringement Action for Bing Widget
The Bing Image Widget had a short fling on the Internet before a copyright infringement lawsuit by Getty Images caused Microsoft to take the widget down.
The widget, which was released on August 22, 2014, allows website publishers to embed a panel on their websites that displays digital images supplied by Microsoft through its Bing Image search engine. The images would appear either as a collage or larger, individual images, according to the complaint filed by Getty Images. The Getty complaint alleges that the Bing images are created by Microsoft crawling on the Internet for images “without regard to the copyright status of the images and without permission from copyright owners” such as Getty.
“In effect, Defendant has turned the entirety of the world’s online images into little more than a vast, unlicensed ‘clip art’ collection for the benefit of those website publishers who implement the Bing Image Widget, all without seeking permission from the owners of copyrights in those images,” the complaint states.
The widget is similar to an “embed” offering by Getty which permits noncommercial websites and users of social media to use any of Getty’s copyrighted images without payment of a fee provided that the image is displayed using the Getty tool. The complaint notes the Getty tool “includes photographer attribution and the Getty Images name and logo. A click on the image leads the viewer to a page where he or she may license commercial uses on a paid basis.” On the other hand, the Bing Widget creates an “embedded panel, bearing the ‘Bing’ logo, in which will be displayed images from Bing Image Search that Defendant has determined as most responsive to a search query of the publisher’s choosing.”
The lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2014 in the U.S. District Court in New York. Getty asked for a preliminary injunction and damages. By September 8, 2014, the Bing Widget had been removed from the Microsoft site.
Getty Images (US), Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, U.S. Dist. Ct., S.D.N.Y. No. 14 cv 7114, filed September 4, 2014.