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November 25, 2009
Italian Govt. Seeks Jail Time For Google Execs
The Associated Press reported that Italian prosecutors are seeking "six-month to a year sentences for four Google executives Wednesday over an Internet video showing the bullying of a teenager with Down's Syndrome."
The Italian government believes Google had a responsibility of the published video when it was placed on YouTube, one of their properties.
The Google executives on trial are David Carl Drummond, the head of Google Italy's managing board at the time; George De Los Reyes, a board member who has since quit; Peter Fleitcher, in charge of privacy protection in Europe; and Arvind Desikan, head of videos for Europe.
Google claims they did exactly what is required under European and Italian law.
Peter Fleitcher, on his personal blog, stated "I won't be attending my trial in Milan in person. I'll be represented by outside counsel. I believe that each of my 3 co-defendants has reached the same conclusion. As for me, I'm under clear instructions from my outside counsel not to set foot in Italy, at all. That's a tragedy, since I love Italy."
He also outlined the timeline for the prosecution, "the Prosecutors present their case today, November 25. The Google employees' lawyers will present their defense on December 14 and a verdict should be issued on December 23."
Posted by Frank Watson on November 25, 2009 1:23 PM
Comments
Roe November 25, 2009 4:03 PM
Just to point out that the italian government has nothing to do with the judicial action, as prosecutors are an independent entity. The plaintiff is a private association that defends the rights of down-affected people. The municipality of Milan applied also as "public plaintiff" (not sure about how this correctly translates in english).
Fabrizio Giudici November 25, 2009 5:43 PM
Thanks for the clarification - thought the government was only entity to sentence people to jail time
Aussiewebmaster November 25, 2009 6:49 PM
thanks for the article
in my opinion,Google had a responsibility of the published video when it was placed on YouTube, one of their properties.
Henry November 25, 2009 11:02 PM
This is just plain stupid.
If you find something you don't like on youtube, report it. If it shouldn't be there, it will be taken down.
Do these idiots want every video uploaded watched by a moderator before it can be uploaded?? seriously??
Good way to stunt technological growth guys. Well done.
Sam November 26, 2009 4:02 AM
Hey , they are Italian what do you expect?
guiseppe November 26, 2009 6:10 PM
I think Google are to partly blame but they can't moderate every single video they receive and if the users have a problem with the video, they can report it. It's stupid that they are being prosecuted for this as there are probably more videos like that out there on the web.
Oliver November 27, 2009 11:28 AM
I'm not clear on what this is saying. What exactly is the lawsuit alleging? Not that the Google execs themselves were harassing the kid with DS, but that by not removing it from YouTube, the execs are somehow to blame and should serve actual jail time??
Frickin' Italy. Pretty hypocritical considering the whole WWII thing.