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Italian Prosecutors Seek Prison Sentences For Google Execs
angry tapir writes "Milan prosecutors have sought prison sentences ranging from six months to one year for four Google executives accused of violating Italy's privacy laws over the posting of a video showing the bullying of a handicapped teenage boy. The prosecutor's request was backed up by a request by lawyers representing the Milan city council for €300,000 (US$452,000) in moral and material damages. The case concerns the posting on Google Video of a three-minute mobile-phone video showing a handicapped boy being tormented by his classmates in a Turin school."
FTA:
Move along, citizens. Nothing to see here.
The Latin word Torino (the proper spelling of 'Turin') means "small crag" or "small cliff". Similar to Greek Sparta, this citystate was notorious for performing infanticide of small, weak, and handicapped children. These kids would be thrown off the cliffs to their deaths for no other crime than being genetically inferior.
Nowadays we are a bit more conscientious about how we treat the weakest among us, but to see Torinos standing up for weak kids is kind of ironic considering the city's bloody history.
that those Italian prosecutors are going after the really guilty parties instead of the little, misguided tykes who perpetrated the incident.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
There don't seem to be any posts.
was to punish the bullies (appropriately scaled to the age of the guilty parties)! The case against Google seems absurd in any case. It hinges on the fact that Google didn't remove the video after it was requested to. The reason was that the request was sent to the wrong address. Google may seem to be omniscient but if they didn't get the notice there is no rational case against them. In any case I doubt they're answerable to Italian law unless the prosecutors could prove to an American court that extradition is warranted.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
Punish the kids who were doing the harassing. Google removed the video within a day, once someone actually bothered to contact them about it, and Google cooperated with Italian police:
I don't care why you're posting AC
He's been commenting on the case itself a little bit here:
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/ciao-italia.html
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/today-in-milan.html
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/european-law-on-hosting-platforms.html
This last one actually has law information in it.
I hope this serves as a lesson to companies who seem to want the best of all worlds. I'm kind of glad that google is getting hit with this because it brings to light the problem with trying to cater to the demands of local governments. When Google began working with governments in foreign jurisdictions it opened the door to this type of activity.
Google would have a much more stable leg to stand on if they simply said 'We are a US company, we will follow US laws.' when China asked them to tailor GoogleChina to meet the party demands.
Similar to safe harbor protections when it comes to ISPs, if you 'fly the flag' of a specific country on the Internet, you are bound by that country's laws. That doesn't mean that the local governments can't block your service, but it should serve as protection when local governments attempt to apply their laws to a foreign company.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
STFU
Google executives weren't the ones shooting the video or uploading it to the website.
Fortunately, according to the article it seems that the prosecutors are just making noise and won't be able to actually throw Google employees in jail.
Strike 1
That's strike 2, Google. If you put one more foot wrong I'm changing my homepage over to Bing.
Summation 2
Could this be similar to the pirate bay case?
If anyone posts video of someone performing some illegal activity, delete it ASAP, don't tell anyone and sweep everything under the rug. The video was never there, you never saw anything and I'm sorry, Officer that I can't help you, am I free to go now?
At least that's what the court is trying to teach them.
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I call for the UN to seek long prison sentences for those italian judges, accusing them of bullying Google.
Furthermore, if I ever go to Italy, I'll print frames of that video, post them on the Piazza San Petro and sue the hell out of the Pope for allowing that to happen. That will fix everything.
Extradition? These are Google employees based in Italy.
"Retarded Italian Prosecutors v Google airing retarded Italians" Happy TG E
Article 14 Hosting
1. Where an information society service is provided that consists of the storage of information provided by a recipient of the service, Member States shall ensure that the service provider is not liable for the information stored at the request of a recipient of the service, on condition that: (a) the provider does not have actual knowledge of illegal activity or information and, as regards claims for damages, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which the illegal activity or information is apparent; or (b) the provider, upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the information.
2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply when the recipient of the service is acting under the authority or the control of the provider.
3. This Article shall not affect the possibility for a court or administrative authority, in accordance with Member States' legal systems, of requiring the service provider to terminate or prevent an infringement, nor does it affect the possibility for Member States of establishing procedures governing the removal or disabling of access to information.
Article 15 No general obligation to monitor
1. Member States shall not impose a general obligation on providers, when providing the services covered by Articles 12, 13 and 14, to monitor the information which they transmit or store, nor a general obligation actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity.
2. Member States may establish obligations for information society service providers promptly to inform the competent public authorities of alleged illegal activities undertaken or information provided by recipients of their service or obligations to communicate to the competent authorities, at their request, information enabling the identification of recipients of their service with whom they have storage agreements.
There is no discussion about it, they cannot be found guilty under EU legislation, and if Italy still sentences them, the Italian government can be dragged into the European court of justice, where they will most likely be found to be in violation of the e-commerce directive.
"Civis Europaeus sum!"
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It's a good thing Italy isn't a fascist country like America and doesn't recognize common carrier exceptions.
Seriously, though, do they expect those four Google executives to sit and watch every video posted on YouTube and Google Video? No human being can possibly consume that much pr0n.
Google should just shut off access from Italy.
Have fun guys!
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Yeah, like I'm going to shop there.
Lin:
Your Government has all those Trillions of dollars - it's keeping it from you. That's right! All that hard work is actually helping the folks in charge. You are they're slave!
Communism is Slavery.
Your Government lies to you about everything. They will kill you all!
Lonely? Can't find a woman? Do you know why? Your Government has been shipping them overseas. They want you to be lonely. That's right! The Chinese government is keeping you away from women! Why are they doing that? Because they want you in the military to fight for them so that they can keep in power.
The Communist Party has enslaved you! Communism == slavery.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Google executives will have to take their place in line.
I plan to launch a similar action against these Italian politicians. After all, it was their country in which the crime took place. They stood by and permitted it to happen, didn't they?
To make matters worse, they haven't even responded to my letter demanding an apology. That's right. I sent it to Gino's Italian Deli in Montreal. It says "Italian Politicians" right on the envelope, so I know that it was addressed properly. If there was any doubt, it could have been forwarded to the Italian postal service.
There is no excuse. These people are criminals.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
Unless these execs posted the videos personally, why are they trying to hold Google responsible? What kind of mob law does Italy follow? What was done to the boy was reprehensible, and by all means, punish the people who did this to him. I seriously doubt these execs even knew this video existed until someone told them they had been charged. Allowing public anger to dictate who can be charged as a criminal when they have done nothing wrong is just stupid not to put too fine a point on it.
There is no other word for the rule of Berlusconi than a smoothly veiled dictatorship...
An example of the abuse of his media empire: http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/11/10/italy-the-latest-fashion-%E2%80%93-blue-socks-against-berlusconi/
It sounds stupid, and it really is... but this is the only country in Europe where politicians can get away with smear campaigns, and only because this politician owns or influences most media in the country.
Something a little more scary is the immunity Berlusconi gave himself to prevent any convictions of his crimes... but that was ruled unconstitutional: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8295716.stm
They should just blacklist blocks of IPs used by Italian law enforcement and legislature for a few weeks from all of Google's services. The Italian government might be able to arrest them if they visit Italy, but Google can deal with them if they go on the Internet.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I shall create the create nation of "Petertopia" and by Edict all Foreigners individuals and companies with a greater income or wealth of $1,000,000 shall be summarily shoved into the basement and bricked up. Alternatively they can pay a yearly fine of $10,000 each.
This story is a complete fabrication. And I should know. I used to drive a Gran Torino. Also, I saw the movie of the same name. Man that was a good movie. I really liked the part where Clint was mad and didn't get along with his neighbors.
I clicked on your Strike 1 link, read that article then clicked on the link that showed the Google Image search results to see the actual image.
The doctored image of Michelle Obama rightfully generated a lot of negative reaction; however about 8 pictures in to the search results was one showing the similarities between George Bush and a monkey. There seems to be no outrage to this one...
Maybe the difference is an attack specific to an individual vs. an attack that is seen to be against a group of people?
The only reason for prosecuting the Google Execs is: It gives more kudos (not within the /. community and only if they win) and press coverage for the prosecutors. So they take the gamble, since most judges are so incompetent about everything concerning the internet.
Like the image of Obama's wife as a money on images.google.com, and everyone seeing an image of a money when they type in her name....it was all their fault for creating such a great search engine that someone could post an image of a money to the web and call it what ever name.
Same thing here , the video is clearly google's fault for letting the video happen, I mean they should have had a multi billion software that is in place and is smart enough to watch the video, and know what is happening and be able to deny it from being posted once someone posts it on youtube or whatever. Come on, where has common sense gone.....I guess these *ssholes really know nothing about computers!
This has nothing to do with the bullies or who uploaded the video but rather our corrupt politicians and their never ending fear of the Internet as a mean for free expression and communications. A few months ago they even made a law proposal for taking restrictive measures (no anonimity), officially to protect children, but the freely downloadable document metadata of the law proposal contained the address of the president of the Italian union of audiovisual publishers. So much for protecting children! That would have been laughable if it wasn't real, sadly it is.
Feel free to search for the Carlucci Law proposal, from the name of Gabriella Carlucci, another -just guess- ex showgirl turned into a politician by that criminal bastard named Silvio Berlusconi.
Plain and simple money grab attempt. Shame on these "officials". How about more concern about the victim?
that those Italian prosecutors are going after the really guilty parties instead of the little, misguided tykes who perpetrated the incident.
What makes you think that the prosecutors aren't going after everyone involved?
I will admit that what worries me more is that to far too many Slashdot posters the "really guilty party" can't be the geek, no matter what the charge.
In Italy is how things goes.
They search for sensational.
I remember some years ago when they search for 7 C.I.A. agents to punish them for an abduction (they said) of a poor illegal immigrant (a terrorist)
In their mind was a great opportunity to be famous, they don't understand that in this way they shows how stupid they are.
But there isn't anyone over they... and we can't punish them for their stupidity. They are "Untouchables"...
Also if we talk about USA all is allowed.
And Google is from USA and is powerful... so is perfect to pursue.
Fail country is fail.
Fuck you, Italy.
If you beat someone up, and brag about it by recording it to a video, you get away.
But don’t dare to tell anyone about it, or you go to jail!
It’s like the censorship in Germany: They are actively protecting and supporting what they say they want to prevent.
With the motto “If we close our eyes to rape, it ceases to exist!”.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Isn't it sad that mods miss irony in a post even if its title states it?
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No Italian get away for the guys at google I'm guessing.
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You know, with Germany talking about making Google Analytics illegal and now this crap, I'm rapidly losing my patience with those who keep running on about how Europe is such a free place.
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This is obviously a stupid prosecution. Does the Italian government or the president hate Google for some reason?
Way to go Italy, for blaming your own society's shortcomings on a foreign company. That'll sure solve the problem of bullying handicapped people.
I guess McDonalds is to blame for the maffia?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Fuck you. Your prosecutors and politicians are a bunch of weak kneed, grandstanding pussies. You pay ransoms to kidnappers [http://www.repubblica.it/2005/d/sezioni/esteri/niccal2/satelli/satelli.html], try to prosecute pawns involved in the fallout [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E3DD113FF93BA35751C0A9619C8B63], let terrorists go [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Achille_Lauro#1985_hijacking], condone and cooperate in quasi-legal intelligence work (legal for us, not for the Italians) and then only prosecute involved Americans when the truth came out [http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/04/italy.rendition.verdict/index.html].
Troll? Fine, somebody please explain to me how prosecuting Google employees for providing a service that anybody can use to upload videos, and complying with police requests for assistance after the authorities bothered to use the correct contact channels is anything but completely insane.
The kids involved are the guilty parties; maybe someone should go arrest their parents for failing to raise them properly. Oh, the parents aren't responsible for watching their kids 24 hours a day? Well, it isn't Google's responsibility to take their place.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
You will only spend time in jail for three-year sentences or more.
I think you missed the memo - Europe is the new Apple and thus is above all recrimination (except for when they try to pass 3 strike laws and justify all of Britain's CCTV cameras). And Americuns is dumbestest and must submit to any and all insults about their intelligence and lack of culture, even if the post itself proves insightful and the poster has demonstrated time and again that (s)he does not fit the mold of the uneducated American.
In other words, America is universally reviled and you are expected to just shut up and accept the hatred, but don't stop writing those support checks to the rest of the world.
Oh, was that my outside voice?
Yes, the original post was a bit light on arguments ;)
Europe isn't really very close to being a single entity at the moment compared to the US. The laws and cultures in each country vary a lot. Even in the British Isles and little islands around about we have separate law in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, probably different ones in Jersey etc.. I'm not an expert on it all. So just because Italy and Germany (2 of the countries that are a bit more likely to be right wing historically) do a couple of crazy things doesn't say much about Europe as a whole.
I hope that google analytics thing is shot down, and no harm was caused by the morons that were trying to blame Google in italy. The are idiots in every country, and unfortunately the idiots are the ones most likely to get on the news. Again, that's not an attempt at misdirection, juts a statement of fact to try to inject a bit of perspective.
which is totally what she said
They should close up their office and their next homepage image should be of a stereotypical Italian mobster chucking toxic waste into the sea for their government along with some bodies.
this is what happens in a country that elects clowns as prime ministers.
Politically, Europe is not a single entity. Some European countries (e.g. UK, Italy, Greece) are more corrupt than other countries (e.g. Ireland, Finland, Estonia).
Of course, all countries have bad laws ("three strikes" etc). Some just happen to have more than others, both within and outside EU.
The reason why U.S. gets more attention than others is because it's the only country which persistently applies the label "Land of the Free", and similar ones, in its political propaganda, with the implication that it's ultimately more free than other countries. Hence why its anti-freedom policies are more heavily scrutinized.
I mean, when U.S. fucks that up, you can always remember about the "freedom" in "freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". When e.g. Canada fucks up, you can at best remember "peace, order, and good government", and notice the conspicuous absence of the word "free" in there.
In other words, it's all about false advertising. ~
I want to sincerely congratulate the nation of Italy. It's great to see that you're continuing that time-honoured tradition of evil governments stomping on the face of free speech. Mussolini would be proud.
It's been a long time.
So, who has a link to the video?
If you operate inside the Italian territory, you'll answer Italian justice..
If "Google Italia" has offices in Italy then they're gonna answer Italian Laws not American's no need for fancy "extradition" science fiction..
You know, with Germany talking about making Google Analytics illegal and now this crap, I'm rapidly losing my patience with those who keep running on about how Europe is such a free place.
It is free. Seeking doesn't mean it's going to happen. The whole thing probably boils down to just a bunch of prosecutors that saw on tv that in US you can bring anyone to court for any stupid reason.
Actually do stop writing cheques, the world doesn't need your money.
You can keep your fucking support checks, and your movies, and your burger "restaurants" and your wars and your attitude. We don't want them, we didn't ask for them. I think you'll find in most cases you insisted despite our protestations. If you do business in another country, you obey that countrys laws. Exactly like traveling in person. Remember the American git who got lashed for dropping chewing gum in Singapore ? I bet you defended him too.
As for 3 strike laws, you fucking invented that !
Now piss off, you insignificant little fuck.
to record details like this. this behaviour should completely preclude these (this) prosecutor from their position let alone a position with more power. if their career was watched and their people they stepped on along the way were able to record their unethical behaviour they might have been stopped earlier.
similarly for police. we need to record abuses of power so that psychopaths and opportunistic sadists are not given positions of authority that they seek out so strongly and manage to attain so successfully in our society blinkered by similarly minded political cabals.
when police falsely charge people and commit physical abuse, they must be held to a standard higher than an ordinary person. we need sincere honest people in positions of authority, whereas the sick sadistic opportunists whom we reward should be shamed and stripped of their influence.
we need to keep the information in a decentralised encrypted datastore that also provides denyability.
this can be done now with social technology. we need a system of many decentralised wikis. each wiki can be founded by people on the ground who know each other in RL. these people can then go about photographing, identifying, and maintaining records of the abuses of police, prosecutors, and other lawyers.
we need to keep the information in a decentralised encrypted datastore that also provides deniability.
something like freenet. but there should be a worldwide project which would offer many challenges and interesting problems but could help reduce corruption and make our legal system more honest and genuine.
side effects could include catalysing social change. also seeing that other people support the abolition of corrupt sadistic laws and these so called authorities.
We don't want them, we didn't ask for them.
Well, don't we sound bitter? You may not have asked for anything, but your elected officials sure did.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Steady on, old chap, we're not all gay here.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Support cheques? What are you talking about? The USA borrows more than any other country on the planet.
If you're talking about aid to poor countries, the UK and France alone give more official development assistance than the USA, with a combined population only 0.4 times as big. When you add up the whole of Europe, the amount of aid given is almost 3 times as high (and the whole European population is only about 1.75 times as high).
As for stupid Americans, there are some insightful Americans, but they're often overshadowed by the ones who are stupid and ignorant, but very loud.
You know, with Germany talking about making Google Analytics illegal and now this crap, I'm rapidly losing my patience with those who keep running on about how Europe is such a free place.
Right, because "freedom" obviously means that some people are more "free" than others, especially corporations with a lot of money. Who cares if mighty corporations violate the rights of mere individuals? The corporations are surely more important, because they have more money.