Google Execs Threatened With Jail Time for Video

How can people face jail time for something they had no hand in?

That lawsuit is just stupid. It seems as though someone wants a "settlement" from a multi-billion dollar corporation. This is what the world has come to.

Italy court is crazy for even considering this baseless charge.

Wow, those poor execs are not at fault at all. That's jacked up.

doesnt this happen all the time? videos of bullying and fights get uploaded all the time, and yet for some reason someone had to take a video shot 2 years back, and publicize it even more to achieve justice by punishing innocent people?

Its a load of crap. This advocacy group athough has good intentions is just using this as publicity to further their cause. I find it dispicable. What they are doing is nothing different then what those 4 boys did to the poor handicapped child. These execs had nothing to do with this video. Its frivolous accusations like this that cause companies to really restrict its users which is never a good thing just to cover themselves in the future.

I Google now responsible for all offending videos posted on their web site? If a terrorist threat gets posted on Google videos, does Google have to take the blow for that video? Is Google now the terrorist? Google has to shell out millions in court while the real perpetrator gets a free ride knowing they did the damage, the world saw it and now Google is paying for their "fun". Sounds to me like little Italy was too lazy to search into the matter or simply don't have the experience dealing with the scum on their own turf. Get real! This is Italy showing its lack of will power to the world and all these stupid advocacy groups will eat this up. We've wronged the right and praise the ones doing the dirty work.

WTF, I thought our courts were messed up, looks like Italy has a big leg up on us. This is nothing short of absurd.

Well at least we now know that the legal system in Italy is just as stupid as the legal system here in the United States.

There are ridiculously absurd cases in every judicial system in every country, it's just the Italians in the spotlight on this one. It's a shame that tax payer's money will go to waste again, and also Google's for that matter, since I think we can all agree this is BS.

Yea this seems crazy on Italy's part. Let's hope we never see anything like this in the US, but then again maybe we already have.

Like google said: it's just like prosecuting the Post Man for delivering the mail. What, are they supposed to open letter now to make sure that our letters are un-offensive? Who then would determine if they are or are not offensive? Additionally, it would open people up to more litigation since they would be responsible for making sure nothing offensive got through and people are inclined to be offended over the littlest things.

Typical left-wing radicalism. Europe is full of this stuff.

real nations plays football with their hands..

This case has not merit, hours of video from the "Special Olympics" are aired all the time. I don't see anyone going to jail for those funny videos *rim-shot*

Hmm. While they're at it, they should bring in Microsoft for supporting the browser (or Mozilla, if it was Firefox) for enabling the video to be played. As well, if this was seen in quicktime format, Apple should be punished. Finally, if flash was run on the site, obviously Adobe is an accomplice.

Seriously, the blame game is stupid. The criminals were punished. If anything, if google never even accidentally allowed the video to be seen, the delinquents would have never gotten punished.

IMHO Italy could build the great firewall of Italy like china does and stop bothering the free internet. There are loads and loads of abusers out there, why not try to user the resources at disposal searching for them? Google is just answering to them, but could do something like the pirate bay does, I'm a free entity of my own, and do as I please in my own place, and you just don't come to me if you don't like what I offer, and if it bothers you so much, do prevent even your users.

Regarding my previous comment, I think I might have initiated a wave of bad luck towards TPB:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Torren [...] -3414.html

First off to those talking about law suits, its not a law suit. The charges are criminal hence the potential for jail time. Secondly its a total joke. The judge has probably never even used an online video service and doesn't understand how they function (automated system, user generated content, etc.). Google has staff and procedures for removing offensive videos and guess what, it worked! Google's response about the post man and hate mail is dead on.

Insane. This is what happens in a nanny state like the EU. Everyone needs to be "protected" from slander and all sorts of bad things. Sue everybody.

This is what's in store for the US if the democrats have their way with big gov't taking over our lives with tons of rules and regulations.

The Italian courts are a bit crazier than ours they also deemed that a man who molested his non-virgin daughter was guilty of a lesser crime than if his daughter had been a virgin! I hope these execs get off because this most certainly does infringe on a free internet!

one more reason to avoid that s-hole france. leave your freedom at the door and enter the police state.

This is ridiculous, the people involved have been punished, Google removed the video when asked to do so, so what's the issue? How can they prosecute those guys when they had nothing to do with it, the case should be thrown out.

This is looking to set a very dangerous precedent. If someone can be prosecuted for hosting information on a free, open platform, who could be penalized next? Perhaps my site gets hacked and I end up displaying unfavorable material, am I to blame? perhaps some would argue i was at fault, but I don't feel its the fault of the host. In this case, Google promptly removed the content and in no way condoned the material. What could happen next? We'd be entering an era of censorship on all sorts of material. (I'm not saying that the footage in question was regarded overly-sensitively, it certainly required punishment, but ONLY of those who created the footage; Google did not own the footage posted) Fahrenheit 451 & Catcher in the Rye anyone?

so does this mean that Ferrari has to pay for speeding tickets obtained in their cars?

the people who brought this case should be prosecuted for wasting important people's valuable time.

Maybe they should try and search youtube under bullying / fight, im sure there are like thousands more video of that they can keep suing. Total nonsense!

ViPr - you are absolutely right!!
I want to sue Italy for wasting the time of the affected people and slowing down my work (because we all know how fast the news got spread when google just did not display results the usual way for few minutes).

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yioJQFrqMXM

The Italian advocates probably posted the video themselves.