Google has been slammed for copyright infringement by a French court, over its ambitious digital book-scanning project.
The ruling has ordered Google to immediately cease scanning French works into its digital library project and pay publisher Editions du Seuil €300,000 in damages.
The search giant is appealing the decision.
"French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of Internet users," Google Books France, director of development Philippe Colombet.
Google was also ordered to pay €10,000 a day until it takes down portions of the French books from its online database.
In the US, Google presented its amended books settlement proposal to a district court last month which offers that its books distribution would be confined to titles that were either on file with the U.S. Copyright Office or registered in the UK, Australia, or Canada.
Meanwhile, in a separate European legal proceeding, Google has been forced to modify the way Street View functions in Switzerland, following complaints that the street mapping service infringes on individuals’ privacy.
No new photos can be posted to its Street View service until the formal court ruling is released. In the meantime, Google says it is continually trying to update the software the blurs specific images to protect individuals’ privacy.