Jail Google execs, say Italian prosecutors
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Italian authorities still want four Google executives behind bars.
The four are accused of defamation and failure to comply with privacy laws in a case involving a cellphone video.
In 2006 a high school student posted a three-minute clip of himself and three others on YouTube. They were, bullying a 17-year-old with Down syndrome, said Online Media Daily.
The clip went live in September, but was taken down November 7, within 24 hours of Google receiving complaints about it, said the post.
Now, Italian prosecutors are demanding a one-year sentence for three executives â David Drummond (right), senior vice president and chief legal officer; Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel; and George Reyes, a former chief financial officer,” says the New York Times. “They are seeking a six-month sentence for Arvind Desikan, who is now head of consumer marketing in Britain.”
However extreme, it’s “but one example of the mishmash in the state of Internet law” says Bloomberg News, going on:
“Bedrock principles in one nation`s culture and law, say, free speech, barely count in a nation that values some other principle more, like privacy.”
and, Can we live in a world that has borderless communication technology and still have bordered law? – the story has Eric Goldman, who teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law in California “and tracks that very issue” asking.
Stay tuned.
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cellphone video – Four Google execs face jail in Italy, February 3, 2009
Online Media Daily Molto Disgusto: Video Brings Italian Wrath Down On Google, February 3, 2009
New York Times – Prosecutors Press Case Against Google in Italy, November 25, 2009
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November 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Frankly I’m on google’s side here; this case is a prime example of why you shouldn’t try to make laws for technologies you cannot comprehend.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Ha.
Good luck Italian government.
Personally, I find it offensive they are going after google instead of the people actually involved in the incident.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:44 am
Being Italian and having lived there for 24 years, I’m not surprised. Italian government and authorities are for the most part corrupted losers. This is an example of how they go after silly things, mainly against innocent people, while letting the biggest criminals (including their pathetic prime minister Berlusconi) doing their own things and even defending them. They waste huge money on this kind of things and do not see that the country is literally falling apart. Sometimes I feel ashamed of being Italian, and anyway I’m glad I got out of that country when I could, years ago.