Ever wonder what a certain country looks like without having to visit? You can always get a quick peek by typing in the location and then searching through its images. This is a feature courtesy of Google’s image search which we can only imagine has come in handy many times and for many users.Unfortunately not everyone is a fan and Getty Images has recently accused the company of “promoting piracy” with its image search feature. According to Getty Images, their issue seems to stem from the fact that Google’s image search can now display full resolutions of the image, whereas several years ago, the images returned were low-resolution thumbnails, which forced users to visit the site to see the larger version.
Getty Images claims that because of this, there is now little reason for users to view the images on the original site. Yoko Miyashita, the general counsel of Getty Images said, “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 word, present and future.”
Speaking to TIME, Miyashita adds, “We want Google to go back to search functioning as search and not search functioning as a substitute of publishers.” The company has also since launched a petition and are encouraging journalists and photographers to be a part of it, but what do you guys think? Does Google’s image search “promote piracy” as Getty Images claims it does?