Sacre Bleu: French Court Socks Google With Copyright Damages

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The Associated Press reports that Google lost a copyright infringement suit in France last week involving French publisher La Martiniere.

According to the report, a judge in Paris ordered Google to pay the publisher euro300,000 ($430,000) in damages and interest for scanning and publishing titles online. The ruling ordered Google to pay euro10,000 a day ($14,328) until extracts of French books are removed from Google's online database.

Google's plan to scan millions of books online has drawn criticism here and abroad, but this latest ruling may spark a "franc" discussion of the issue.