Business

Three Google Executives Convicted of Privacy Violations in Italy
by Magdalena Rosova

A video of a Down's syndrome teenager being bullied was posted on Google Videos. Italian court decided to give suspended sentenced to three of Google's executives. On Wednesday an Italian court convicted three Google's executives over a video showing the teenager being bullied. The video was uploaded in 2006 and was removed after two months. In the video four schoolchildren were bullying the teenager with Down's syndrome and more than a dozen of others were watching and did not intervene. The children who bullied the teenager were suspended from their school in Turin. Last year the victim's family dropped a lawsuit against Google. David Drummond, Google Senior Vice-Pr! esident, former Italy board member George De Los Reyes and Google’s Chief Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer were given six-month suspended sentences for violation of privacy. A fourth executive was acquitted. Google will appeal the decision of the Milan's court saying that the video had been removed within hours after was notified by the Italian police. The company further described the decision of the court as "an attack on the fundamental principles of freedom on which the internet was built". The prosecutors praised the court for protecting personal interest above corporate profit. In statement they added that human rights are more then corporate interests. The case rises question of the future of the internet. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube say that then can not control the content created by their users and therefore they do not hold any responsibility. Only if they are informed that something is illegal, they can remove it. The prosecutors accused G! oogle of being negligent in not removing the video sooner. How! ever, Go ogle's lawyers said the company removed it within hours. But the prosecutor argued that the video was one of the most-viewed and was subject of controversy for a long time before the police asked Google to remove it.

related story (sgx16603): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/24/google-vide...

by Magdalena Rosova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and S! MS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models

posted by Blog TechSource @ 1:33 AM