Good news for porn surfers.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday reaffirmed its earlier support for the socially redeeming value of searching the Internet for nudie pictures.

The San Francisco court, in reviewing a case it initially considered in May, reiterated its finding that Google could display tiny versions of photographs by Perfect 10, a Beverly Hills adult publisher, in search results, even when those images are copyrighted.

The court focused on the legal question of which party holds the burden of proving whether Google’s use of Perfect 10’s images constituted a “fair use” under the copyright law. Fair use is a defense that entitles the use of copyrighted works, under certain circumstances, without the owner’s consent.

The appeals court initially said Perfect 10 held the burden of proving that Google couldn’t make its case. It corrected itself Monday, saying it was up to Google to articulate its defense, even in a case such as this one, which dealt with whether the courts could issue a preliminary injunction.

Nevertheless, the court said, Google met that test. The justices ruled that a larger public interest in searching for information - or, in this case, images of partially clad women - amounted to a “transformative use” that trumped Perfect 10’s copyright claims.

The small legal tweak did not change the appeals court’s original May decision.

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It’s good news for porn sites too since many surfers find their way to porn sites through a Google Image Search. Perfect 10 would’ve made themselves very unpopular with everyone if they’d succeeded in killing the image search.