Hi there…here is the big news… just want let you know as I’m in Italy
The Court of Milan in Italy has condemned three managers of Google accused of defamation and not respect of privacy because in 2006 they have not prevented the publication on Google of a video where four students from a technical institute insulted and beaten a guy affected by down’s syndrome.
In particular the court sentenced to six months in prison two managers and the former President of the Board of Google Italy. The three were sentenced for the head of imputation of violation of privacy but not for the head of imputation of defamation.
Just to set some schedule time… the video with the harassment to they guy affected by down’s syndrome was shot by the four students in May 2006, then loaded on Google video on 8 September, where with a huge amount of clicks it remained in the top section until 7 November.
The centre of this process was the protection of the person, the protection of privacy. The rest is a fact itself, is the first criminal case also at international level that sees charged responsible of Google for the publication of content on the web. In recent hearings the family of minor with disability had withdrawn its lawsuit against the leaders of Google.
Google has clarified that will call “against that decision which we believe to say the least surprising, since that our colleagues have had nothing to do with the video in question, since they have not turned, they have not loaded, they have not seen”.
For the spokesman of Google “if this principle is less, falls for the possibility to offer services on the Internet”.
I think what sums up this case quite nicely is the following quote (from the article):
Richard Thomas, the UK’s former information commissioner and consultant to privacy law firm Hunton & Williams, said the case was “ridiculous”.
“It is like prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post,” he told BBC News.
What also very much strikes is the following quote:
Prosecutors argued that Google broke Italian privacy law by not seeking the consent of all the parties involved before allowing it to go online.
According to this article 28,800 hours of video gets uploaded to youtube EVERY DAY.
Suppose every minute depicts one person, then Google would have to seek the consent of 24 * 28,800 = 691,200 people every day.
And of course more than one person is show each hour and the article is from May 2009, the number is most likely to be quite a lot higher right now.
So, there will be litterally millions and millions of people who have to give their consent EVERY DAY …
How is the prosecutors argument valid!? This is just too weird …
we have a word for that - FARCE.
A style of humor marked by broad improbabilities with little regard to regularity or method;
Are the Italian courts going to sue CANON OR NOKIA for making a video camera that it was shot on?
ridiculous, totally ridiculous.
Also can I clarify some very key points.
First of all the student had Autism - not Downs Syndrome. Two very different things.
and secondly, the video was shot and uploaded BEFORE Google took over YouTube
I agree with that … and also no matter what is the problem of the guy if down or not or just authistic or completaly sane…
This kind of things should not happen… broadcasting or not… SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.
The new generation here in Italy is totally rotten believe me… and is not their fault all the system must be blamed as does not offer anymore the most important thing in life for a young man… dreams.
[FONT=“Georgia”]It’s not Google’s responsibility to censor or ban content. They can if they wish, for their own, personal reasons, but that’s up to them.
The only laws they are subject to are the ones within their own state and country. Part of creating an account and using Google’s services is the acknowledgement of the user that the user will take personal responsibility for his own usage; Including what he posts and what he watches.
As Spike said, if someone used a Nokia camera to photograph child abuse, is Nokia responsible?
Well, youtube (and therefore Google) do have a certain amount of responsibility regarding what’s being published… but ask them to view every single video before it is published so it can be approved is absurd.
Their responsibility comes when someone complains about that video. Then, they should look at it, see if the complaint has a base and remove it immediately if it has.
If they failed to do so, then they have been rightly accused, penalised and condemmed.
A website owner is responsible of the content… no doubt about that, and all the system online is already builded to achive that.
If i publish illegal stuff on my web my ISP is going to warn me and shut me down…
If the ISP do not act someone bigger then them will act… till the postal police…
Who is responsible in user generated content like web 2.0 this is a big issue if the users can be anonymus… a BIG issue.
Seriously what difference does it make if the person who bullied was autistic or had any kind of disability? The main point is that Italy’s legal system is completely stupid, especially that the people who they convicted had nothing to do with the uploading or screening of the content, heck one of them was the financial officer!
