Google lands in Italian court over privacy breach
SEARCH OUTFIT Google is to have its executives in the dock to face criminal charges in Italy.
Italian investigators have charged Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer and three other Google executives with defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data.
The investigators are upset that Google allowed the posting of a video showing a disabled teen being bullied by other kids. Google executives could be banged up for 36 months if convicted on the charges.
The move is believed to be the first instance of a privacy executive being held accountable for his outfit's actions.
A spokesGoogle moaned that bringing the case to court was "totally wrong" and has said that it has repeatedly expressed its sympathy for the victim and his family. Google co-operated with the authorities to find out who the bullies in the video were and they have been identified and punished," she said.
However the company cannot be held responsible for everything that appears on the World Wide Wibble, she added.
She trotted out the same old line that it was akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post. Locking up Google employees was an attack on a free, open Internet, Google said and it would defend its employees in court.
The video was uploaded on Google's Italian site in September 2006 and showed four sicko boys taunting and bullying a 17-year classmate with Downs Syndrome. After a complaint from the Italian Interior Ministry, Google pulled the video in under 24 hours.
But that was not good enough for Milan's public prosecutor, Francesco Cajani, who considers that under Italian law ISPs responsible for third party content on their sites.
It took five coppers to bring in Fleischer when he was on his way to a scheduled speaking engagement at the University of Milan on January 23.
After he finished speaking he was hauled before an Italian judge. µ
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Saying it is like arresting a post office worker because someone sent a hate letter is a VERY good comparision. The thing is though it is pretty much impossible to stop things like this from happenning. They can deture it though and the fact that the video was taken down and Google helped the police catch the people who posted the video... and likely bullied the handycapped kid will likely deture other kids from doing the same. Throwing a few executives in jail will do nothing.
I think about the only thing Google could do is mave a message pop up saying that Google will help law enforcement agents arrest people posting illegal or hatefull videos whenever someone posts a new video, requiring you to click a check box stating that you understand this and will be personally responsible for the video you are posting.
They're right. Good analogy.
The post office analogy is not working in this case. It would work if the post man opened the letter and stick it on the tree close to your house.
What goes on youtube becomes public, and clearly that breaks privacy laws.
Italian schooling system, spoiled teens and parents that brought them up, not Google. This time, they're not evil. rilly ;)
Google did exactly what it should have done - pull the video after being alerted. It has no more responsibility than that. Might as well hold Google responsible for beating the boy while they're at it - after all, the video was clearly made to be published. Ridiculous. I hope this lawsuit gets trashed the way it should be.
Google does not screan every video... they can't really as there are likely millions if not billions of videos posted. They have to rely on whistle blowers and pull the video. As soon as there is a complaint the typically check and pull the videos. That really is all they can do. Besides you have to go out of your way and actually go to their website. They have posted rules and warnings. They pull videos all the time and close accounts when people break rules.
Saying that it is like the mailman would have to open the letter and post it publicly is not true. It would be more like someone sending out thousands of misterious envelopes to random households and the postman slapping a sticker on it saying that contents inside this envelope might be offensive. If people still open it then they get what the expect. The big difference is that in the case of the posman they would still have to deliver the all of the other letters to the addressed location, while Google only delivered a portion, got some complaints and pulled the rest, then spent the time (and money) to track down who posted the video and gave the information to the police, helping to have the bullies arrested. They helped to arrest the 'real' criminals and still they are in trouble. Likely that video was pulled within minutes of the complaint.
People (and countries) just think that Google is the 'evil empire' with deep coffers and want to point fingers to get some of that money. Mark my word civil lawsuits will likely fly too.
When in Rome, do as the Romans. ;-)