Italy convicts Google execs over uploaded video

[Newsjock]

Source: CNN

A judge in Milan found three Google executives guilty Wednesday of violating Italy's privacy code over a video that was uploaded on the search giant's video platform, the company said.

After being notified about the video -- which showed students bullying an autistic classmate -- by Italian police in 2006, Google took the video down within hours, said Matt Sucherman, the company's vice president and deputy general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in a blog post.

... Sucherman said a public prosecutor in Milan then indicted four Google executives -- senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, chief privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, marketing executive Arvind Desikan and former chief financial officer George Reyes -- for criminal defamation and violation of the country's privacy code.

All but Desikan were found guilty of the privacy charge, and the judge found all four executives not guilty of criminal defamation.

Google said it plans to appeal the court's decision because its employees "had nothing to to do with the video in question" and for its implications on Internet freedom and censorship.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/24/technology/Google_Italy_privacy_conviction/

[gmoney]

1. that is messed up...