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.

Unfortunately, not much more information is available regarding the research center; Google hasn’t hinted how many people will work there or what they’ll focus on.  No completion dates or dollar (or euro) figures were mentioned, either.

With regards to the institute, though, Google said according to the AFP, "The culture centre will be a hub for technology that promotes the past, present, and future of pan-European culture," and will support the "acceleration of the digitalisation of books, documents, magazines, etcetera."

Schmidt also explained, "Why now?  And why in France?  Because the French adopted the Internet so quickly, the ad market is one of the most sophisticated, and the French love Google more and more."

We’ll be sure to report any additional details as they become available.

The video shows a France 3 technician attaching a microphone to Sarkozy’s tie, and ignoring the presidents greeting. "It’s a question of manners," Sarkozy is heard saying on the video. "When you’re invited, you’re entitled to have people say ‘hello’ to you."

The video found its way to the Dailymotion Web site and has had close to 500,000 hits. It was recorded on Monday while Sarkozy was getting ready to be interviewed on France 3 television and leaked to liberal news blog, Rue89.

France 3 issued a statement about the leaked video that says,"The management has launched an internal investigation and also condemned, in the strongest terms possible, the piracy of images shot during the preparation of the special interview, which was attended by the President of the Republic yesterday (Monday)."

The center-right French political party, Union for a Popular Movement is criticizing the leaking of the video to the Internet.

"French citizens have a right to demand more seriousness and rigor on the part of the public service, which they help to finance and they support through a strong commitment to channels belonging to the France Television group," said UMP national secretary for Internet Thierry Solere in a statement.