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Four Google Officials Facing Charges In Italy For Errant Video
mikesd81 writes to tell us that four Google employees may be facing charges of defamation and failure to control personal data simply because they didn't remove a video of a boy with Down's Syndrome being harassed and eventually hit over the head with a box of tissue, from Google Video. The video was posted in September of 2006 and was removed by Google within a day of receiving the initial complaints, but apparently that isn't fast enough. "Google maintains charges against the employees are unwarranted, Pancini said. Europe's E-commerce Directive exempts service providers from prescreening content before it is publicly posted, he said. Also, the video was technically uploaded to a Google server in the US, not in Italy, Pancini said. 'It was a terrible video,' Pancini said, adding that Google is concerned about the case's impact on censorship on the Internet. The defendants include David C. Drummond, a Google senior vice president, corporate development and chief legal officer. Pancini said Drummond did paperwork to create Google Italy, but has never lived in the country."
Sometimes Youtube is like some sort of arena where the weak are abused for the mere amusement of the masses. And of course, Italians would never put up with such a vile spectacle!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Seems that the internet having no boarders is being used by courts to extend their reach (e.g. Kentucky). This certainly does look like a good road to be traveling down.
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
That's a bit machiavellian of them.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
How on earth are they suing individuals? Google is a corporation and must be treated as such under the law.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
If this proceeds, Google should simply shut down its operations in Italy and move to a neighboring country where its employees won't be targeted by tyrants.
I'm assuming Italy doesn't want that reputation.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
You may not know it but many prosecutors here in Italy are well known for being quite stupid and just trying to appear on newspapers. Laws in Italy are sometimes so complicated that they can justify any kind of "crime"
For anyone who has managed a web forum (or yahoo group or whatever) and been sued for defamation/libel over material posted by a 3rd party - Is Section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act the relevant US law to be used in one's defense?
It seems to be appropriate, but does anyone have personal experience?
Predictably, it doesn't state anywhere that Italian prosecutors are going after the boys who harassed and attacked a handicapped child.
Too soon.
So let me get this straight, four kids were bullying a child with Down's Syndrome and a video of it was posted on Google Video. Rather than speaking with the parents of the children about bullying someone, especially someone with Down's Syndrome, prosecutors in Italy decide to go after Google? I don't think the teens involved should be going to jail and certainly Italian taxpayer time and money should not be directed completely on this. But I don't see how or why they are trying to go after Google, especially since they complied with the removal request within a day.
Also, for those of you wondering who Pancini is and didn't read the article, he is introduced in the article as Marco Pancini, Google's European public policy counsel. The summary does not mention who the hell he is.
Best "String" Ever!
Why don't you found a 501(c)(3) corporation to work for the banning of such groups?
I agree with you, and think that certain regulation should be implemented that mimics certain countries laws. That would be the person who shot the video, no the person who is hosting the server that let someone post the video. I am not sure(as I never read the articles) but if the person is guilty of not screening, then I don't think there should be punishment, but if there is a way to track the person who filmed the video and posted it...they are the ones who should get charged.
What, you mean you can be sentenced to several years in jail in a nation that you're never even visited? Imagine the shock.
I wonder if we'll ever see an American extradited to Europe, Australia, or even China for breaking intellectual property laws. The US is currently lobbying for criminal law to be used to enforce patents in the EU - it would be amusing to see the response if Europe actually started requesting the extradition of Americans who are suspected of violating EU patents!
In other news, treaties that are only enforced by one side suck.
Now that's funny - why'd you go and post as AC?
Sorry i was in a hurry and i wasn't logged in...
Just kidding, i didn't post that. Hah. Or did i? Really i just wanted to ensure that if someone stepped up to the plate after this, it would be sufficiently confusing that one could never know if they were really the OP! Hah! Oh god, i need a life...
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
I agree with you, and think that certain regulation should be implemented that mimics certain countries laws. That would be the person who shot the video, no the person who is hosting the server that let someone post the video. I am not sure(as I never read the articles) but if the person is guilty of not screening, then I don't think there should be punishment, but if there is a way to track the person who filmed the video and posted it...they are the ones who should get charged.
Charged with what? Putting a distasteful video on the internet? Do you know what kind of precedent that would set? Not that the current situation (suing google) is any better...
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Or for assaulting a kid with Down syndrome...
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Do you know what kind of precedent that would set?
None, as the Italian law system is not based in common law and therefore does not have the notion of precedent
"You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
Why sue Youtube?
There are the harassers and the video posters who are more directly linked with any harm.
Oh, right. The money.
That was a comment that reeks Mafia all the way. Sure, some prosecutors are silly like there are silly people everywhere, but this kind of generalisation is typical of corrupt politicians who accuse prosecutors going after them of being politically motivated, as appearing in the press were the main aspiration of prosecutors (in case you did not know: we do not elect prosecutors nor judges here, so being known among the populace is no career advantage). There is much more money and career to be made by keeping quiet and pandering to illegal interests, as Corrado Carnevale exemplifies.
As for the specific case, I'd like to point out that in the Italian system felonies, once reported, must always be investigated and prosecuted, no matter the opinion of the prosecutor; it is a way of reducing arbitrary decisions and IMHO it is overall a Good Thing. As the article says, the decision to hold trial has not been made yet, and the chance that the prosecutor will ask for an archiving is not as small as you Americans may think; since all reported felonies must be investigated, dropping one is not a mark of incompetence on someone's career.
If I remember correctly, in this specific instance it was former justice minister Clemente Mastella, leader of a corruption-ridden micro-party and currently in political disgrace (the two things are unfortunately unrelated...) that was most vocal in calling for a ban on Youtube and Google video when the video surfaced, of course never suggesting that the people who uploaded the video and performed the assault should be investigated themselves.
In fact, I have no idea about what happened to the perpetrators. Surely I did not read nor hear anything on Italian media. It seems that all the fuss was about the thing being recorded and broadcast, instead of the crime itself.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
And probably Italy, too.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I'm wondering why they would take the video down? Is not having the video going to improve the life of this child? Does it make us pretend that someone is not getting abused?
Sometimes we need to see the truth of things. Why isn't all of the NAZI propaganda, translated Hitler, Goebels and other speeches on YouTube, along with captured footage of all the outrages committed by them. Let's get all of our ugliness up there, and if there is any editing, let the editing be to yank out the gore so that the lesson of our brutality is not a mere snuff fest to watch with some buddies over a case of beer.
You could make a pretty compelling case that the Bush administration's efforts to censor terrorist web sites and traffic from the American people probably undermined his war effort far more than any left wing protest -ever- did.
If you dig around a bit, you find not only their web sites but their people too, and they aren't hiding their intentions or hatreds at all. A few minutes talking to them would quickly break oneself of the illusion that these are guys in the mold of the disenfranched western person that the nonviolent in America would want to believe these people are.
You never see a terrorist video describing their grievances, in the fashion, for example, the way American blacks and civil rights leaders might just take a camera to black guys getting firehosed by the police. Nope, these gladly post videos triumphing the killing of American soldiers, cheering the destruction of civilians. I guarantee you I've never seen Martin Luther King laughing that one of his people dressed up their retarded kid with explosives and sent him to bumbling towards a flea market.
Quite honestly, at a time when I had serious doubts about the war, some AQ fanboy posting videos cheering IEDs of American troops certainly hardened my opinion in -favor- of it. But oh no, Bush tries to censor -all- of it, giving us a substitute of "these people are really evil", and that's just lame. He could have stood up and said, "hey, if you don't believe me, when I say that we have to fight these people, just go ask them...seriously... just go talk to al qaeda yourself, and see, at http://www.someterroristwebsite.com/"
As much as the right wing makes fun of the left for pretending that there is no evil, the right did itself no favors by trying to hide it.
This is my sig.
Why don't you found a 501(c)(3) corporation to work for the banning of such groups?
Nah. Too much work.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
maybe not a legal precedent in the traditional sense, but just because there's no common law doesn't mean people won't imitate these actions and file similar cases after seeing the successful prosecution of the defendants in this case. heck, other European, and even non-European, countries could see it as an affirmation of "societally acceptable" censorship.
it's just like when the U.K. starts putting up surveillance cameras everywhere it, not only sets a bad example, but also makes it more permissible for, and in fact encourages, other governments to similarly encroach on the rights of their own citizenry, and likewise when the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act was passed. in the age of modern international relations and global culture, events and policy decisions in one nation rapidly ripple outward to other nations, especially as the U.K. & the U.S. are purportedly the leaders of the "free world."
Italy isn't a global leader or superpower, but their cultural & political attitudes can still spread to their international peers. and all it takes is for one so-called democratic society to shift towards a reactionary/oppressive state unopposed to start a positive feedback loop, where each nation's own step towards fascism becomes justification for increasingly draconian policies in another nation.