- Joined
- Oct 28, 2007
- Messages
- 23,937
- Reaction score
- 16,492
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a trial over a video showing a teenager with Down's Syndrome being bullied.
The Google employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online.
Judge Oscar Magi absolved the three of defamation but convicted them of privacy violations.
The UK's former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said the case gave privacy laws a "bad name".
The three employees received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant was acquitted.
News Source
Interesting, there were other ways this could have been dealt with - such as recognising that Google had pulled the video anyway and the four bullies had been expelled from their Italian school.
Google says it has no plans to pull out of Italy and that it will vigorously appeal the case.
At the moment there is no indication that a similar case could or would be brought in any other European country.
Italy does seem determined to pursue such cases though and similar ones are ongoing against other net giants, such as eBay, Yahoo and Facebook. Its motives in pursuing such cases are less clear.