A video that showed a group of students bullying an autistic schoolmate was uploaded on Google Video back in 2006. And because of this, 3 Google executives received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant, product manager, Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.
They supposedly failed to comply with the Italian privacy code, but were not, in any way part of the film or aware of its existence.
I’m not too sure what the Italian privacy code is; but one thing’s for sure, it isn’t very Internet friendly.
Directly from Google:
“…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.”
One of the Google executive were spared in the final ruling. Nonetheless, Google has vowed to appeal against this decision, pointing to the fact that this case has “attacked the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built”.
