This is kinda crazy

Serious threat to the web in Italy

In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that's where our involvement would normally end.

But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed.

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

The decision is sure to affect all manner of Internet companies, not just Google. Italian law says that Internet service providers are not liable for content posted by users, but Internet content providers are a different story—they are responsible for the things they "publish." Google had argued that it falls into the former category, but Judge Oscar Magi disagreed.

As a result, practically any company that's not explicitly an ISP could be held criminally responsible for content uploaded by users, no matter the quickly it is taken down after a complaint. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, the Italian equivalents to Craigslist—the list is long. Many of these companies may instead choose to close up shop in Italy rather than risk their employees' livelihood. "It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built," Google's VP and Deputy General Counsel Matt Sucherman wrote.