A French court has ordered Google to block from its search results pictures of former Formula One motor racing president Max Mosley participating in a sado-masochistic sex party with five women.
Google’s lawyers are still studying Wednesday’s ruling and plan to appeal. They say the Paris High Court wants the company to build a censorship machine.
The pictures were initially published under the headline “F1 BOSS HAS SICK NAZI ORGY WITH 5 HOOKERS” on March 30, 2008, by now-defunct British newspaper News of the World, which paid one of the women to record the event using a hidden video camera.
A subsequent court case found that, while the video showed participants speaking German and wearing modern German military uniforms or playing the role of prisoners, there was no evidence of a Nazi theme. In the same ruling, the High Court of England and Wales found that the newspaper had infringed Mosley’s right to privacy and awarded him £60,000 (then $120,000) in damages.
Mosley has also had publication of the photos declared illegal in separate cases in France and Germany, according to a statement released by his U.K. lawyers, Collyer Bristow.
“This is a welcome decision. The action was brought in respect of a small number of specific images ruled illegal in the English and French courts several years ago. Despite their illegality and my repeated notifications to them, Google continued to make the images available on its own webpages,” Mosley said in the statement.
However, the company maintains that it has responded to Mosley’s notifications by removing links to the photos.
- Via: PCWorld
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