Barrichello Wins $500,000 Lawsuit against Google

Rubens Barrichello might not have earned a huge amount of money during the 2009 season, despite fighting for the F1 title with two races to go in the championship, but the Brazilian driver's account was recently filled with at least $500,000, according to the official Sao Paulo government gazette.

That sum accounts for the money he earned after winning a lawsuit against Internet giant Google, after the latter posted a number of false profiles of Barrichello on their own-hosted Brazilian social networking service. Throughout the last year, Orkut network was invaded by Rubens Barrichello profiles, most of which were defamatory of the former Brawn GP driver.

In some of those profiles, the 37-year old Paulista was depicted as a 'tartaruga' (turtle), obviously someone's idea of a joke regarding his appearance.

For all of those false profiles, Google will likely pay an additional $590 fines for each and every one. That would make up for quite a decent sum of money, which the new Williams F1 driver – confirmed for the 2010 season – already announced he will donate to the Instituto Barrichello Kanaan charity.

Obviously, Barrichello was not available for comment during the course of this week, as all the information about this case was shared to the media by his lawyer. Google also refused to issue a statement on the matter, but they're unlikely to appeal the court's decision. According to several reports in the country, it seems “the damages are unprecedented for online libel,” which makes Barrichello many people's hero in terms of response to online defamation.