Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
487 F.3d 701 (9th Cir. 2007)
Google's image-search engine (defendant, along with Amazon.com) displayed thumbnail versions of images, including copyrighted nude-model photos from Perfect 10's (plaintiff) subscription website, and used 'in-line linking' to let users view the full-size image framed within a Google window, sourced from the original third-party site rather than Google's own servers; Google earned advertising revenue from some of those third-party sites. Perfect 10 sued for copyright infringement and obtained a preliminary injunction from the district court, which found Perfect 10 likely to succeed on its display-right claim regarding the thumbnails (though not on distribution) and found the thumbnail display was not fair use; the defendants appealed.
Whether a work is transformative fair use when it adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the original work's expression, meaning, or message.