"Before there was "Google Earth" there was "Google image search," and since then, whether at Yahoo, MSN.com, or nearly any other major search engine, the ability to click "images" and search the entire Web for pictures has become such a standard feature of Web browsing life that we can hardly imagine life online without it. Yet a recent California court decision, Perfect 10 v. Google Inc., 04-9484 (C.D. Cal, Feb. 17, 2006), actually threatens this new but already fundamental feature of the Web."

http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20060501cra

why....how could they....who would be stupid enough to do that

A really bad decision. My only complaint with the article is that it implies Google made the first image search (and set a trend), which they certainly didn't.