Search engine law

There was a recent piece by Mark Anderson published by IEEE Spectrum, "The Gray Areas of Search-Engine Law" that raised a couple of interesting points:

The law is always playing catch-up with technology. But in the world of search-engine law, say some scholars, the courts have only begun to recognize the existence of a train leaving the station, let alone chase after it.  

The legal gray zones of Internet search are vast, says James Grimmelmann of New York Law School. But they still can be outlined and defined.

In an article in the November 2007 issue of the Iowa Law Review, Grimmelmann writes that four broad areas of law—intellectual property, free speech, antitrust, and the openness of search algorithms—are still very much up for grabs in Internet search. And the next few years could see rulings, settlements, or legislation that will put some of the key legal cornerstones in place.

“The biggest undefined area is how far fair use extends in copyright,” Grimmelmann says, referring to the doctrine that allows for use of copyrighted materials for the purposes of education, public interest, or parody. How broadly Google or Yahoo or any of their peers can claim fair use to index Web sites, databases, books, and other copyrighted content, he says, is the essential issue. And the pending lawsuits filed against Google’s new Book Search engine are where Grimmelmann says the biggest legal aftershocks could originate.

Read more here.  However, it also reminded me of a book chapter written by some of my colleagues at QUT: Fitzgerald, Brian F. and O'Brien, Damien S. and Fitzgerald, Anne M. (2007) "Search Engine Liability for Copyright Infringement".  It is available to download on QUT ePrints here.  This is the abstract:

The chapter provides a broad overview to the topic of search engine liability for copyright infringement. In doing so, the chapter examines some of the key copyright law principles and their application to search engines. The chapter also provides an import discussion of some of the most important cases to be decided within the courts of the United States, Australia, China and Europe regarding the liability of search engines for copyright infringement. Finally, the chapter will conclude with some thoughts for reform, including how copyright law can be amended in order to accommodate and realise the great informative power which search engines have to offer society.