Over the years, Google’s had to appear in French courts several times, and it now looks like a recent case didn’t go so well. Google’s been found guilty of breaching copyright laws, and unless something changes, the company faces a …

There’s good news and bad news for Google in France today.  The Autorite de la Concurrence – a competition watchdog – has decided it isn’t thrilled with the company’s power, but isn’t yet willing to assert that Google needs to be tamed with fines and legal measures, either.

Following a significant period of inactivity (brought on by outright hostility), Google Books has made a breakthrough.  France’s largest publisher has agreed to an arrangement that’ll allow Google Books to scan many of its out-of-print works.

Google and its CEO, Eric Schmidt, are in a little bit of trouble in France.  Due to the appearance of some controversial search suggestions in connection with a plaintiff’s name, a court’s convicted both the company and the man of defamation.

Specifically, it seems that Google France would suggest terms like "prison," "rape," "rapist," and "Satanist" when searchers would try to look up an individual (who was once convicted of corrupting a minor).

A country in which Google’s search engine enjoys a market share of around 90 percent is soon going to see even more of the company.  Google’s announced that it will build a research center and help create some sort of cultural institute in France.

Given that Google has encountered resistance to its book-scanning program in France, we should note that the country’s authorities support these plans.  In fact, Eric Schmidt actually met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who approved.

Anyone who had hoped the French Supreme Court would be able settle the dispute between Google and LVMH over keywords, advertising, and trademark infringement is in for an unpleasant surprise.  The French Supreme Court did in fact rule on the case today, but now both sides are celebrating.

In Europe, Orange is an almost omnipresent organization – the third-biggest mobile operator and the second-biggest broadband Internet provider, according to its own stats.  And so it seems MySpace has made an interesting compromise by entering into an advertising and content partnership with Orange in France today.

France is considering a proposal to tax online advertising revenues earned by companies such as Google.

The proposal would extend to other companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo and would put an end to "enrichment without any limit or compensation," newspaper Liberation quoted Guillaume Cerutti, one of the supporters of the proposal, as saying.

The Google Books project suffered a significant blow today in France as a Paris court found Google guilty of copyright violations.  The search giant’s been ordered to stop scanning books, remove information from its database, and pay some hefty fines.

European online Christmas shopping season got off to a strong start this year in the U.K., France and Germany, according to a new report from comScore.

Visits to retail sites were up 18 percent during the first week of November compared to an average week during the prior two months, and increased even more throughout the month to reach a 41 percent growth rate during the week ending November 29.

France saw solid gains, resulting in the same 41 percent growth rate during the last week of November, while Germany showed slight lower growth at 16 percent.

France saw widespread growth in online video viewing during the past year, as audience size and video engagement both increased significantly, according to a new report from comScore.

The number of online video viewers in France increased 36 percent to 34.6 million, while the number videos viewed grew 141 percent to 5.4 billion. The average time spent viewing videos online nearly doubled to 11.7 hours per viewer in September.

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.