Courts - Italy Three Google execs convicted of privacy violations Internet company says verdict sets 'dangerous precedent'

By Colleen Barry Associated Press Writer MILAN (AP) -- Three Google executives, including its chief legal officer, were convicted of privacy violations Wednesday in Italy for a video posted online by bullies of an autistic boy being abused -- a case closely watched due to its implications for Internet freedom. In the first such criminal trial of its kind, Judge Oscar Magi sentenced the three to a six-month suspended sentence and absolved them of defamation charges. A fourth defendant, charged only with defamation, was acquitted. Google called the decision "astonishing" and said it would appeal. "The judge has decided I'm primarily responsible for the actions of some teenagers who uploaded a reprehensible video to Google video," Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, who is based in Paris and like the others was tried and convicted in absentia, said in a statement. He noted with irony that he was convicted for privacy violations despite devoting his career to "preserving and protecting personal privacy rights." Chief legal officer David Drummond said he was "outraged" that he was found criminally responsible for a video uploaded by bullies, noting that EU and Italian law recognizes that Internet hosting providers like Google are not required to monitor content that they host. "This verdict sets a dangerous precedent," Drummond said in a statement, saying an Internet hosting employee could face a similar liability. In addition, he said the verdict "imperils the powerful tool that an open and free Internet has become for social advocacy and change." The verdict could help define whether the Internet in Italy -- and perhaps beyond -- is an open, self-regulating platform or if content must be better monitored for abusive material. It comes as Google already is facing regulatory challenges in Italy, where a draft bill would require Internet sights to control content the same way television stations do. Google has lobbied for changes in the bill. In the United States, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally gives Internet service providers immunity in cases like this, but no such protections exist in Europe. Google, based in Mountain View, California, had said it considered the trial a threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers to attempt an impossible task -- prescreening the thousands of hours of footage uploaded every day onto sites like YouTube. "We will appeal this astonishing decision," Google spokesman Bill Echikson read from a Google statement at the courthouse. "We are deeply troubled by this decision. It attacks the principles of freedom on which the Internet was built." It was the first of two setbacks for the Internet search engine in Europe. In Brussels, the European Commission said Wednesday it had asked Google to comment on allegations by rivals that it demotes their sites in its search rankings. EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres declined to name the three rivals and stressed that it hadn't opened a formal investigation for now. Google said it would provide "feedback and additional information on these complaints," but stressed it was not violating any EU antitrust rules. Convicted of privacy violations along with Fleischer and Drummond, who is based in Mountain View, California, was retired chief financial officer George Reyes. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan, who works in London, was acquitted. Prosecutors had insisted the case wasn't about censorship but about balancing the freedom of expression with the rights of an individual. Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said he was satisfied with the decision because it upheld the principal of privacy and put the rights of the individual ahead of those of a business. It could force Google, and any other hosting platform, to consider better monitoring its video, he added. "This is the big principal affirmed by this verdict," Robledo said. "It is fundamental, because identity is a primary good. If we give that up, anything can happen and that is not OK. This is a verdict that finally makes a clear statement on this question that we consider fundamental." The charges were sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome. The group alerted prosecutors to the 2006 video showing an autistic student in Turin being pushed, pummeled with items, and insulted by bullies at school who falsely called the autistic teen a 'mongoloid,' in a mock telephone call to Vivi Down. "Unfortunately, in Italy, the term 'mongoloid' is used as an insult, which we don't like," Edoardo Censi, president of Vivi Down, said outside the courtroom. "Our problem is the defense of our children, of the disabled. I say it not as president but as a parent. ... When we learned of the video, our first concern was to remove it." Google Italy, which is based in Milan, said it took down the video two hours after being notified by police, as is required by law. Prosecutors argued that viewers had flagged it well before police contacted Google, and the fact it shot to the top of a list of "most entertaining videos" on the Italian site, had 5,500 views during the two months it was online and 80 comments, meant it should have been noticed sooner. Thanks to the footage and Google's cooperation, the four bullies were identified and sentenced by a juvenile court to community service. The events shortly preceded Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube. All four executives denied wrongdoing. ---------- AP Correspondent Robert Wielaard contributed from Brussels. Published: Thu, Feb 25, 2010

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