The original European Court of Justice ruling seems ambiguous on the question of whether Google can withhold results from google.co.uk, etc., while continuing to return the links on google.com. So this issue was going to be the subject of further litigation in any event. The French ruling, which was NOT from an appeals court, could have as easily come from, say, Germany. Google retaliating against the first EU state where a court rules against google.com would not make the issue go away. Therefore, I disagree with the France-bashing in some posts here.
On the underlying issue, while I tend to side with Google, I have mixed feelings. One of the great things about the US used to be that it was a country of second chances. But now, with the internet, a criminal acquittal, or an expunged conviction, is liable to stick with you forever. I can't see this as anything but unfortunate.
On the other hand, most of these takedowns seem wrong to me:
http://hiddenfromgoogle.afaqtariq.com/