from www.businessweek.com – Amazon.com Inc. and Perfect 10 Inc. settled a copyright infringement lawsuit the adult publisher had brought over thumbnail images of nude pictures it said can be viewed with Amazon.com search sites A9.com and Alexa.com.

Lawyers for Amazon.com and Perfect 10, at a hearing today in Los Angeles federal court, said the companies had settled the case. Terms of the settlement were confidential and wouldn’t be disclosed, Jeffrey Mausner, a lawyer for Perfect 10, said after the hearing. Anthony Malutta, a lawyer for Amazon.com, declined to comment.

Perfect 10 had sued Google Inc., the world’s most-used Internet search engine, and Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, alleging they were offering users access to copyrighted material on other Web sites. U.S. District Judge Howard Matz found in 2006 that Amazon.com likely didn’t infringe Perfect 10’s copyrights.

Today’s hearing had been scheduled to hear arguments on Perfect 10’s request for a ruling that Amazon.com was liable for contributing to copyright infringement. Perfect 10 and Google haven’t settled, Mausner said.

Matz in 2006 had granted Perfect 10’s request for an order temporarily preventing Google from displaying thumbnail images of the publisher’s photos that link to third-party Web sites that contain full-size pictures. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed that ruling the following year.

The case is Perfect 10 v. Google Inc., 04-9484, and Perfect 10 v. Amazon.com Inc., 05-4753, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).