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The Strange Case of Mr. X
France was also the setting for a lawsuit involving an individual, "Mr. X," who had been convicted of corruption of a minor and whose Autocomplete results included "satan worshipper" and "rapist." The Superior Court of Paris found both Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who under French law is considered the "director of the publication," and the company itself guilty of libel. The plaintiff was granted an award of €5,000 and the terms were removed. Though the court recognized that the suggestions were the result of an algorithm, in its decision, it said, "algorithms or software begin in the human mind before they are implemented."