Hi there...here is the big news..... just want let you know as I'm in Italy

The Court of Milan in Italy has condemned three managers of Google accused of defamation and not respect of privacy because in 2006 they have not prevented the publication on Google of a video where four students from a technical institute insulted and beaten a guy affected by down’s syndrome.

In particular the court sentenced to six months in prison two managers and the former President of the Board of Google Italy. The three were sentenced for the head of imputation of violation of privacy but not for the head of imputation of defamation.

Just to set some schedule time… the video with the harassment to they guy affected by down’s syndrome was shot by the four students in May 2006, then loaded on Google video on 8 September, where with a huge amount of clicks it remained in the top section until 7 November.

The centre of this process was the protection of the person, the protection of privacy. The rest is a fact itself, is the first criminal case also at international level that sees charged responsible of Google for the publication of content on the web. In recent hearings the family of minor with disability had withdrawn its lawsuit against the leaders of Google.

Google has clarified that will call “against that decision which we believe to say the least surprising, since that our colleagues have had nothing to do with the video in question, since they have not turned, they have not loaded, they have not seen”.
For the spokesman of Google “if this principle is less, falls for the possibility to offer services on the Internet”.

Yeah, I saw that and remember when this all began.

Since you are in Italy, just curious what your own opinion is of the case. Do you agree with what the court did? How is Google generally viewed there? Something tells me if the same thing happened in America it wouldn't end up being as big of a deal. People might complain about the video and I can see the courts demanding it be taken down, but I couldn't see the executives being taken away to prison.

You know in Italy someone love drama! Quite rotten system over here.

It make me wonder and I have not yet a clear position about that........

do people deserve internet freedom?
do they realize that is possible destroy a life with internet?

is hard decision......... a knife can cut bread and cut lives... should we forbid knives?

An event highlight is a good way to advertise, can be a model that delivers advertising spam impressed everyone...

Actually I don't understand why court verdict that way ... They should order google to delete the video in a fair way. I think this kind of court moves may reduce our Internet freedom.

a knife can cut bread and cut lives... should we forbid knives?

Good point. I can understand why people would want to see that video taken down and I can see a court ruling requiring it to come down. It seems a little much to put the Google execs in jail though over a video.

It is a tough issue. I'm generally a private person. I value my privacy and don't like how my privacy is eroding with new technology. On the other hand as a marketer I understand the value of the data companies collect about us and why they want it. I also think it's inevitable that more of our privacy will go away.

People who want privacy are either going to have to accept that they'll only get it by being one among billions or they'll have to take great efforts to keep their privacy. For my part I try to stay aware of who might be collecting information about me and learning what I can to prevent it if I choose.

I agree with that ....

This kind of things should not happen... broadcasting or not... SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.

The new generation here in Italy is totally rotten believe me.... and is not their fault all the system must be blamed as does not offer anymore the most important thing in life for a young man... dreams.

Maybe they should have taken the video down, but this seems etxreme

As far as I may understand, the actual question before the Court was :

1. Is Youtube (google) responsible of the content of the videos available on Youtube?
Or
2. Is Youtube just a simple technical support so that the owner of the video is the only responsible person?

The Court has decided for the first answer.

To some extent, the discussion is about the same as with regards to discussion forums. In most countries (and for a long time), Courts have decided the management of forums is responsible of the content of the discussions (with only limited exceptions).

So the decision of the Italian Court is not so surprising.

If the decision is confirmed, that would mean that google must control the videos before they become available to people; of course, this requires heavy staff expenses and technical restrictions.

If it is not confirmed, the system may work as it does now without heavy expenses. Google may then remove a criminal video only if and when someone else claims the video is criminal so that the criminal video may be available in the meantime.

Fun thing they did not punished parents of that kids, principal of their school, or pm of the country (sic) where such crime happened.

It always easier to blame "someone else". In this case - Google, for running video hosting service with no real content monitoring.
Next step should be closing down camera-phone manufacturer and burning Tim Bernes-Lee for creating Internet, a network of anarchists where people don't need reticular scans to log in ...