If a French court has its way, eBay will soon have to fork over $2.6 million.  The fine stems from a ban on the sale (or purchase) of LVMH goods, and actually ties to a case that ended in eBay being told to pay LVMH $61 million.

French publishers had their first day in court today as a case concerning Google Books began.  Various organizations are clamoring for Google to stop scanning manuscripts, and the plaintiffs are seeking about $22 million in compensation, too.

The La Martiniere publishing group originally brought its case against Google several years ago.  Since then, the Syndicat National de l’Edition and the Societe des gens de letters have offered their support.

Google’s scaled back its literature-related plans in the hopes of not angering publishers and regulators in Europe; the company has said that it won’t add content to Google Books if it’s available for sale on that continent.  At least a few important critics seem unimpressed, however, as France is objecting in a U.S. court. 

The French Senate is considering a revised version of an Internet piracy law that was ruled unconstitutional last month, despite backing by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

France’s highest constitutional court has struck down part of a law backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy that was aimed at targeting Internet pirates.

The law was set up as a three-strikes system for copyright violators, who would first receive an email warning, then a letter and ultimately lose their Internet access if they were caught a third time.

A French court has ruled in favor of eBay in a case brought cosmetics company L’Oreal over the sale of counterfeit goods on the site.

L’Oreal was suing eBay for $6.97 million (3.5 million euros) claiming the company was not doing enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods posted on its auction and sale sites.

French lawmakers approved a plan on Tuesday to cut off Internet access to those who illegally download content.

The French National Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 296 to 223 and the measure will go before the Senate for final approval on Wednesday.

The legislation is one of the toughest ever drafted against Internet piracy around the world, it would penalize those who pirate music and movies by shutting down their Internet access for up to a year.

In February, more than 35 million people in France accessed the Internet from a home or work computer, up 19 percent over the previous year, according to comScore.

French Internet users spent a combined total of 932 million hours online in February, an average of 27 hours per person. Instant messaging was the most popular activity with total share of time spent at 14.3 percent, followed by social networking at 5.7 percent. Together the two categories accounted for one out of every five minutes spent online during the month.

Microsoft didn’t have too bad a month of search in January. As Doug reported, comScore had Live Search’s market share rising from 8.3 to 8.5 percent.

Facebook has been making a lot of efforts to expand internationally, and that continues today with the promise of a new team in France starting with one guy.

Okay that may have been a bit over dramatic, what I meant is that LinkedIn is now accessible en Français. Oo-La-La. A few of the LinkedIn employees put together the following video to welcome the new French site users.

Given the economy’s current condition, most people are cutting out random trips to the local grocery store, never mind overseas vacations.  So as non-millionaires should agree, this makes it all the more interesting that Google has released additional Street View photos taken in France.

Talk about adding insult to injury.  Even as rumors spread about another round of layoffs at Yahoo, the company has created a batch of ultra-enviable positions by opening a research center in Grenoble, France.

French film fans are illegally downloading more movies than they pay to see in theaters, according to a new study.

Alpha, a movie industry group that fights piracy, commissioned the study to examine the number of films downloaded on the Internet via P2P file sharing with movie ticket sales.

Auctions of fake Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH) goods that a French tribunal believed eBay should have prevented resulted in a verdict against the online marketplace.

In the UK, Germany, and France the Internet has about double the influence of television when it comes to consumer decision making according to the Digital Influence Index, a study done by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.

The study found that consumers use the Internet in a number of ways to make decisions. Consumers are more likely to seek opinions of others by visiting social media and product rating sites when making choices that have a major personal impact.

A Paris court has ordered eBay to pay $61 million (38.6 million euros) to luxury goods designer LVMH for allowing counterfeit merchandise to be sold on the auction site.

The decision comes about a month after a French court ordered eBay to pay $30,000 to luxury goods maker Hermes for its role in the sale of fake handbags.

eBay has been ordered by a French court to pay $30,000 to luxury goods designer Hermes for the company’s role in the sale of three counterfeit handbags.

The courts ruling was the first time a French judge found eBay directly accountable for the sale of counterfeit items by one of its customers. eBay maintains that it removes listings found to be fraudulent and argues that the liability for those listings is on the seller.

Hackers hit the Web site of a French magazine in an effort to influence an opinion poll about the Beijing Olympics and change the site’s content.

The Web site of business magazine Capital was first attacked in March, when it featured a poll asking if France should boycott the opening ceremony of the Games in China, according to publisher Jean-Joel Gurviez.

Five-time French presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party, is hoping to make some money by auctioning his old bulletproof car on eBay.

Le Pen, who was a surprise second in the 2002 French presidential election, put his party headquarters up for sale earlier this year after costly defeats in presidential and legislative elections last year left his party deeply in debt.

Even as YouTube’s revenue and CPMs get debated yet again, a new way in which the company could lose money has come up.  TF1, a French television network, has sued YouTube for 100 million.