The Google Books digitization project suffered its first legal blow on Friday, when a Paris Court ruled that the ambitious book settlement clearly violates the stringent copyright laws applicable in France. The court further ordered Google to make a €300,000 (US$432,000) payment in damages for breach of copyright.

The court decision came after Google and a group of powerful French publishers - including the high-status Le Seuil publishing house - argued over the pros and cons of the project for three days. The court's ruling, which prevents the Internet search giant from digitizing copyrighted French books, is applicable only to books published in France.

As a result, Google would have to discontinue unauthorized distribution of digital copies of French books to French Internet users. The court ruling says that for every single day that the books remain accessible online without publishers' permission, Google would have to entail an additional payment of €10,000.

At a post-court-ruling conference call with the journalists, Philippe Colombet, Strategic Partner Development Manager for Google Books, said that the details of the ruling are being studied by Google, which plans to appeal against the verdict.

Expressing disappointment at the court's decision, Colombet said: "We regret the court's decision, as it means that French Internet users will have access to less content than Internet users in other countries.