Friday, March 06, 2009



The Milan Four

We read:
"Four executives of Google - call them the Milan Four - are on trial in Italy for the crime of being employed by Google when an objectionable video was posted to a Google video site. The charges are defamation and privacy violation. The accused face jail time. The video showed teasing of a boy with Down syndrome. As soon as Google was told about the posting, the company removed it. According to reports, the four were not even `directly involved in hand[l]ing video from Italy.' Obviously, this is not a just prosecution."

Source

There have been other instances of hostility to the internet from Italian authorities.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Google, like facebook and utube, should be held responsible for everything that's put on the internet using their services. You can not simply sit back and get rich from all the crap they make available, then claim your hands are totally clean.

Sensorship? That's right! And it's time we had some, else we'll continue to be out of control.

Anonymous said...

Sensorship? Is that a boat full of detecting equipment?

Anonymous said...

Did the kid get hurt? Where where his guardians? Placing the blame on Google instead of the kid's guardians is pretty much stupid. Obviously the kid was not getting the supervision that was required. Instead of going after Google, go after the kids that were doing the teasing and taping. Then go after the parents of the handicapped child for not providing a safe atmosphere.
-Ferndale Fanny

Anonymous said...

Indeed Google should be held responsible. Any other service would be, and would expect to be held responsible and actively police uploads (many will actively moderate anything before it's uploaded).
But Google as always think themselves above the law in all countries, it's about time they were put in their place and their execs thrown behind bars to rot not just for things like this but the constant and incessant violation of privacy and consumer protection laws perpetrated by the company.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why the Milan Four are being tried for a video they didn't even see...

Try the parents of that kid instead.