“Thumbnails III (Vorschaubilder III)”

If the operator of an Internet site offers a search function in the form of an electronic reference (link) to a search engine with which visitors to its Internet site can, by entering search terms in a search form, call up thumbnail representations of copyright-protected photographs stored by the search engine, this constitutes a communication to the public within the meaning of Sec. 15(2) of the Copyright Act if the photographs retrieved by the search engine were placed on the Internet without the permission of the right holder and the operator of the search function knew of the absence of the right holder’s permission or must reasonably be expected to have known. Even if the provider of the search function acts with intention of earning a profit there is no presumption that it had any knowledge of the absence of the right holder’s permission.