Computerworld reports that following a
lawsuit from Getty Images, Microsoft has temporarily removed the beta of the
Bing Image Widget from its website. However, for those people who uploaded the Widget prior to the Getty challenge the Widget still works.
Getty Images filed a copyright complaint against Microsoft on Sept. 4, 2014. The following day the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Microsoft to show-cause by Sept. 17 as to why an order should not be issued, enjoining it from using, offering, or otherwise supporting the Bing Image Widget or comparable technology used to display images, during the action, unless it has an express license for such use by the copyright owners.
Microsoft's Bing now says on its
website that " We have temporarily removed the beta." The company told IDG News Service on Monday in an email that it had temporarily removed the widget "so we can take time to talk with Getty Images and better understand its concerns."
According to Getty's complaint. "Rather than draw from a licensed collection of images, Defendant gathers these images by crawling as much of the Internet as it can, copying and indexing every image it finds, without regard to the copyright status of the images and without permission from copyright owners like Plaintiff."