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The multimedia photo and video agency sued
Microsoft on Sept. 4 over the widget, which it said permitted
the display of images without giving their owners a licensing
fee or attribution. Getty owns or represents the owners of more
than 80 million digital images.
Getty asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan to slap
Microsoft with an injunction on the new product. Even though
Microsoft removed the widget the day after the lawsuit was
filed, Getty pressed forward with its case.
Getty told Cote not to believe Microsoft's claims that it would
not relaunch the widget because it did not rule out creating a
new widget that could still infringe on Getty's content.
"This argument is purely speculative," Cote said in her ruling
on Thursday, adding that there was no basis to question
Microsoft's word on its future conduct.
"We would have preferred a judicial mandate for (the widget) to
stay down," said John Lapham, Getty's general counsel. "But the
question of whether or not you're allowed to take and use
somebody else's copyrighted materials without any attribution or
compensation is still live and before the court."
Microsoft told Getty during the lawsuit that if it did launch a
similar product in the future, it would include "search filters,
attribution notices" and other details important to copyright.
Representatives from Microsoft could not immediately be reached
for comment.
The case is Getty Images Inc v. Microsoft Corp, U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 14-7114.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Ted Botha and Richard
Chang)
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