Google says Milan judgment 'spells end of web as we know it'
Three Google executives convicted in Italy over video showing disabled boy being bullied
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Wednesday, 24, Feb 2010 05:17
By Matthew Champion.
The conviction of three Google executives in an Italian court over a video published online of a disabled teenager being bullied threatens the very existence of the internet, the search engine giant has said.
The three executives were given six-month suspended sentences after being convicted of violating privacy laws by a Milan judge.
The footage in question showed a boy suffering from Down's syndrome being bullied by four other teenagers.
In the video, which was uploaded in September 2006 on Google Videos and remained in place for two months, the victim was shown cowering as he was punched and kicked, while one of his attackers made a mocking call to Viva Down charity, which eventually complained about the video.
David Carl Drummond, George De Los Reyes and Peter Fleischer were all given six-month suspended sentences, while Arvind Desikan, an executive with Google video Europe, was cleared of privacy violation. All four were found not guilty of defamation.
Lawyers representing Google said in their ultimately unsuccessful defence that the video was taken down within hours of notification from the Italian police and that the four men had no connection with the footage other than that it was uploaded via Google services.
Matt Sucherman, vice president and deputy general counsel, Europe Middle East and Africa of Google, said after the verdict that the firm was "deeply troubled" by the conviction.
He said the conviction "attacks the very principles of freedom on which the internet is built".
"Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming," Mr Sucherman said.
"European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbour from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy.
"If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them - every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video - then the web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.
"These are important points of principle, which is why we and our employees will vigorously appeal this decision."