(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-23 21:59

PARIS  -- US internet giant Google has been found guilty of contravening copyright laws in connection with a film that was posted on its site prior to seeking authorization from the owner.

Google has been found guilty of "counterfeiting" by the Paris District Commercial Court for posting the film, "The World According to Bush (Le monde selon Bush)" by William Karel, online, without seeking permission from the copyright holders and despite their protests, film producer Jean-Francois Lepetit announced Friday.

In compensation, the internet group has been forced to pay 150, 000 euros (about 220,000 US dollars) in damages to Flach Film, the company that produced the film, and Editions Montparnasse, which had been contracted to distribute the film legally," said Lepetit.

In November 2006, Flach Film filed a lawsuit against Google because it had allowed internet users to access the movie in its entirety and free of charge, through its site Google Video France, despite complaints from the producer, according to Lepetit.

On the platform of Google video, the film could be accessed by simply clicking in the form of streaming or downloading and "it was viewed many times in a very short time," according to the producer. "Until the court proceedings began in December 2007, it was possible to find the film on Google," said Lepetit.

The American giant was thus found to have been in " contravention of the provisions of the Intellectual Property Code on copyright and related rights," according to the Flach Film official.

In its defense, Google, world's leading internet search engine, said that it "appreciated the recognition by the court of its status as host, thus arguing that it is up to copyright holders to notify video platforms in the event of damage to their works."

"We believe, however, that mandatory filtering imposed by the judgment was impossible to meet without the cooperation of content owners," Google France legal director Yoram Elkaim said shortly after the judgment was handed down.