Google, ex-F1 boss Max Mosley settle sex party image row

Google and ex-Formula One boss Max Mosley have settled a dispute over images from a sadomasochistic orgy he took part in, the US tech giant and Mosley's German lawyer said Friday.

"The dispute is settled, to the satisfaction of both sides," German lawyer Tanja Irion told AFP, confirming a report by Spiegel news weekly to be published Saturday.

She said Mosely, 75, had commented that "the agreement is confidential ... I'm happy and I do not want to jeopardise it".

Google spokesman Klaas Flechsig also told AFP that "I can confirm that we have settled the dispute to the satisfaction of both sides in all countries.

"Since the agreement is confidential, we cannot provide you with any further information," he said in an email to AFP.

A court in Hamburg, Germany had in January last year ruled that the US technology firm must prevent the pictures being shown on its German-based google.de site, two months after a similar ruling in France.

The German 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 at the time said it would appeal the German court's decision, saying it sent a "disturbing message".

The Hamburg ruling was one of a string of legal battles waged by 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 News of the World 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.

Mosley, whose father Oswald Mosley led a British fascist party in the 1930s, headed FIA, the governing body of world motorsport, for 16 years until 2009.