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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."
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
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
Yeah. If only the Latin name wasn't Augusta Taurinorum, that has nothing to do with cliffs and all with the emperor's name and the name of the local people.
Strike 1
That's strike 2, Google. If you put one more foot wrong I'm changing my homepage over to Bing.
Summation 2
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.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I don't know where you found this info, and I never heard anything about it (and I actually have born and live in Torino). Also there are no "cliffs" around Torino, and Torino has nevere been a citystate in ancient times: in fact it was born as a Roman military camp.
Extradition? These are Google employees based in Italy.
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!"
Except sometimes a parent wouldn't have the heart to do this and would raise the deformed child to be a powerful warrior, promising that he will one day be able to be a spartan.
Sadly this was not to be as his deformities would make him unsuitable to join their ranks. In a fit of self loathing he would then lead the Spartan's enemies down a hidden route so the Spartans would be flanked and killed.
At least that is what I was led to believe by a highly accurate documentary I watched.
you're way off, man
the name Torino comes from the ancient roman name Augusta Taurinorum and the latin root for Taurinorum means nothing like "cliff" or "crag" but is tied to the population (Taurini) that lived there before Julius Caesar conquered their city.
Also "taurus" is the latin word for "bull".
And, as far as i know, there were no mass infanticide in that city either.
THIS IS TUUUUUUUUUUURIN!!! (not Sparta :))
Similar to Greek Sparta
Ironic? This... is... TORINOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hush you! culture in not appreciated in america and history may well be adapted to meet the requirements of a well told story.
just read the homo sapiens etymology at http://www.eco-pros.com/biodiversity.htm (around the end):
<Scientific name: Homo sapiens translates from Latin as Homo (self, man or human being), sapiens (wise, knowing). The Latin "homo" is related to the word "humus" earth, and could be viewed as a kind of "earthling.">
at least wikipedia got it right:
In the first century BC (probably 28 BC), the Romans created a military camp (Castra Taurinorum), later dedicated to Augustus (Augusta Taurinorum). The typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city. Turin reached about 5,000 inhabitants at the time, all living inside the high walls.
And Taurinorum comes from "Taurasia", a somewhat legendary barbaric village thought to be burned down by Hannibale coming to Italy, as the "Tauri" people, for which it was the capital, refused to surrender to him. It was later reconstructed as Castra Taurinorum.
History is hard, so please don't try it at home, kids.
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
If you want /. to take action against these posts, you'll have to join the church of Scientology first.
Then they'll listen. :)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
They killed babies for being genetically inferior?
Well, if they discovered gene theory, in the centuries before Christ, I say more power to 'em!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Also Ironic, that they haven't actually done anything about the incident, to make sure the kid is okay;
Yes, they did: the bullies have been suspended from school and assigned to community service.
On the penal side, they're accused of private violence, insult, defamation, assault and menaces.
It is interesting to note that the kid's family withdrew the suit against Google, and the trial is now going on only because other parties enlisted themselves as "civil parties" (that is, victims of a crime who are seeking for a refund - sorry, I don't know the exact english term for that).
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?
Actually, the movie is not complete fiction. Greatly exaggerated, but not complete fiction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae is pretty interesting reading.
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
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.
How about we just look at this case, where google had nothing to do with the assault or the video, other than providing a venue where people could post any video? Google removed the video as soon as they received a complaint. I'd still like to know how Google violated a law here.
From the article:
The delay in removing the offensive video was the result of a failure to apply to the right authority, Pisapia said. When the complaint reached Google Inc., which controlled Google Video, the video was removed within hours, he said. "The first complaint went to the wrong address, so the people who had the power to remove it were unaware of the problem." Italian law does not lay any responsibility on hosting providers to monitor the content they upload onto Internet, Pisapia said. "Their only responsibility, established under a 2003 law, is to remove content when ordered to do so by the judicial authorities."
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
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.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
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.
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?