Paris: In a landmark ruling, a French court on Wednesday ordered Google to prevent its search engine from providing links to images of a sadomasochistic orgy involving former Formula One boss Max Mosley.

Google, which had strongly opposed Mosley's request, immediately announced that it would appeal a decision it fears will set a dangerous legal precedent for costly and heavy-handed automated censorship of the internet.

"This decision should worry all those who defend freedom of expression on the internet," said Daphne Keller, Google's legal representative in the case.

The appeal does not suspend the ruling, which Google now has two months to comply with. The court also fined Google a symbolic one euro and ordered the company to pay 5000 euros ($7000) in court costs.