Google’s Perfect 10 problem.

Updated

Perfect 10 contends that Google is displaying thousands of its adult images to draw traffic to its Web site, and so has sued to stop Google from copying, displaying and distributing what it says are Perfect 10 copyrighted images.

Some may be wondering about Google’s “do no evil” motto when it comes to such things. Copyright issues aside, Google seems to have shrugged off any intention to avoid explicit images — unless we’ve missed something. Remember, Google co-founder Sergey Brin kind of liked Playboy while at Stanford, and then, of course, there was the famous pre-IPO interview with Playboy. Yahoo, meanwhile, has consistently faced protests from some irate shareholders about its explicit images, but it also seems to have shrugged off the issue. Both have relied on similar family-safe filter options, and that seems to have satisfied most.

Update: Good piece here by Techdirt making clear that it’s not Google ripping pictures, but other sites. Google is then just taking the pictures from those other sites.