14 DAY TRIAL // Google is not having the best day in Europe. After being hit by a rather frivolous, but serious nonetheless, investigation by the European Commission for alleged anti-competition practices, the company has now received the decision in the long-running Google Video lawsuit in Italy and it doesn't look good. Three of the four Google employees accused in the lawsuit were found guilty and were given a suspended sentence for violating the country's privacy laws.
Unprecedented rulling
Judge Oscar Magi ruled that the four men were not guilty of criminal defamation, another charge brought against them by the prosecution, and acquitted Arvind Desikan, an executive at Google Video Europe, altogether. The other three, David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes, were given suspended six-month sentences. While Italy has been making some curious moves concerning the Internet, all of which have free-speech implications, the conviction comes as somewhat of a surprise and it is a, very dangerous, first for any western court.
"In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question," Matt Sucherman, VP and deputy general counsel – Europe, Middle East and Africa, said as the voice of Google's reaction to the ruling.
"[W]e are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It 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," he continued.
Google Video Lawsuit
The heart of the issue is a video of an Italian highschool student with Down Syndrome bullied by several colleagues. The clip managed to stay on Google Video for several months before being reported and subsequently taken down. Google then cooperated with the officials and the uploaders and persons in the video were identified and dealt with by the authorities. However, Google was put on the spot for not taking down the video sooner and for not securing the consent of everyone in the video before making it available. It is under this latter accusation that the three Google execs were found guilty. Google is already under anti-trust investigation in the country.
The web under threat in Italy
The decision is being appealed by the company, which believes the whole trial to be outrageous, but Google is also raising concerns about the larger issues here. What this unprecedented ruling does is establish responsibility for websites and services for the content their users post. Google rightfully notes that, under this decision "every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video" would have to be approved by a site before posting it, which is impossible in the practical sense. If this was the case, the Internet as we known it, which relies heavily on user-generated content, would not be possible.
Italy is developing quite a history of backwards decisions and laws that end up serving no real purpose, except stifling free speech by regulating the web. The apparent aim is to assert control over the one medium that isn't under the direct or indirect rule of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. He controls the state TV network RAI through his position as head of the government and the largest private media company in the country, Mediasat, as a majority stake holder.
One thing is certain, it's not the last time the Google Video case will make the headlines and it should be interesting to see how things develop. Equally interesting would be an official stance from the European Union on the matter and the laws being proposed in Italy, which go against EU policies and directives.