Google flap: Doodle dos and don'ts

Once again, bloggers are in an uproar over copyright issues.

This time the hubbub surrounds one of Google's "doodles," the little drawings the search engine uses to replace its logo on special occasions. On Thursday, Google put up a doodle in honor of artist Joan Miro's birthday.

But representatives for the artist's family were not impressed, saying Google had not asked permission to reuse several copyright images of his work. Google has since taken down the doodle, although the company said it does not believe it infringed on copyright.

Predictably, bloggers were shocked and appalled at the complaint. Whether the whole matter could have been avoided if Google had simply asked for permission first is unknown.

Blog community response:

"Google just wanted to celebrate the surrealist artist's birthday with a tribute--and one would guess they have enough lawyers to defend an obviously noninfringing work. But hey, no problem--someone else can go defend creative rights."
--ValleyWag

"That's a shame, since the logo is clearly designed to pay tribute, and is a great, noncommercial way of exposing hundreds of millions of people to Miro's work. Of course, the news story probably got them even more publicity, so maybe this was a smart move."
--InsideGoogle

"Stories about patents stifling innovation have become pretty common. It's unfortunate that some are abusing the copyright system to prevent the world from being a more beautiful, visually interesting place."
--Techdirt