German court: Google must wipe ex-Formula 1 boss orgy photos

A German court ruled Friday that Google must block photos of a sadomasochistic orgy involving former Formula One boss Max Mosley. The court said the six images taken from a video of the orgy that was filmed by Britain's now defunct News of the World tabloid seriously breached Mosley's privacy. Google must prevent the pictures being shown on its German-based google.de site, including via links on its search engine, the court in the northern city of Hamburg ruled. "In the court's view the pictures offered seriously violate the plaintiff's privacy," said judge Simone Kaefer. The ruling is the latest in a string of legal battles waged by 73-year-old Mosley related to the publication of the video and a 2008 article published by the Rupert Murdoch-owned British newspaper alleging it was a Nazi-themed orgy. Mosley successfully took the publisher of the newspaper to court over the Nazi claim, winning £60,000 (73,000 euros, $99,500) in damages when the judge ruled there was no Nazi element. In November a French court also ordered Google to prevent its search engine from providing links to images of the orgy, prompting the US company to immediately announce it would appeal. Google argued in the French case that the court's decision raised fears of costly and heavy-handed automated censorship of the Internet. Source: AFP