Perfect 10 Sues Microsoft

A publisher of nude model photography is suing Microsoft Corp. for putting links and images of the company's content in search results taken from other Web sites that are illegally reproducing the material.

The company, Perfect 10 Inc., previously filed similar suits seeking injunctions against Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. over alleged copyright infringement.

The latest suit alleges that Microsoft's MSN image search feature creates unauthorized thumbnails of content owned by Perfect 10 and includes links to see a full-size versions of the images for free. The suit also says that Microsoft's MSN search engine makes passwords available to the company's perfect10.com Web site.

Microsoft also takes advertising money from Web sites that have stolen Perfect 10 images, and provides links to Web sites that offer passwords for Perfect 10's services, according to the lawsuit. The companies could not be immediately reached for comment.