[samwise]

I'm curious as to the benefits of having an actual presence in France.

i highly doubt Google will comply. The only possible out come i see is Google setting up shop outside France's jurisdiction.

[martin_kirch]

Actually, in France many Internet-related companies don't even care about complying to this. That's why they're firstly sending their lawyers. BTW Google is not alone in this case, some major french companies are also suing the state. In the meantime, if the police or justice come asking for information, many will slow down or block the process by invoking technical difficulties (it already happened with Hadopi).

Our current government (yep, I'm French) is driven by fear when it comes to the Internet, it's not the first they try to promote meaningless laws... So far, fortunately, they're not enforced as the authorities claim.