Hell hath no fury like a French filmmaker scorned. Ask Google, which is on the receiving end of a copyright lawsuit filed in France by producer Jean-Francois Lepetit. Lepetit's Flach Films wants to hold Google accountable for hosting on Google Video a pirated copy of his film "Le Monde Selon Bush," ("The World According to Bush,") reports Variety.

The documentary, which apparently parallel the themes in Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11, has since been removed from the site, and Google has issued boilerplate responses thus far to press inquiries: "Our terms and conditions specify that users (internet surfers) don't have permission to use videos which they don't own the rights to," said a Google porte-parole. (BigMouthMedia reports that the Frenchies want 500,000 euros in damages.)

Indie French film producers are not exactly a major legal threat, of course. (Why does The Browser fantasize about how Donald "Going to war without France is like going duck hunting without your accordion" Rumsfeld might handle this were he to suddenly emerge from unemployment as Google's new head of PR?) But with copyright-infringing YouTube now nestled close to the Google bosom, these sorts of legal shots across the bow must be unnerving for the Google crew. When GooTube was buying lawsuit insulation from the U.S. media giants prior to the merger, did they think to include media outfits all over the world?