Italy Wants To Put Google Execs In Jail Over Uploaded Video
from the punish-whoever dept
Sometimes you hear about lawsuits that are so bizarre and so wrongheaded, you just have to shake your head and wonder what people are thinking. For example, take this news that Italian prosecutors are preparing to file criminal charges against four Google execs. Why? Not for anything Google, as a company, did. Or anything those executives actually did. But, because four kids filmed themselves taunting a disabled boy in a classroom and that film was uploaded to Google. The four kids in question are also facing criminal charges -- which is perfectly reasonable.But under what distorted sense of justice does one somehow have to have to think that Google executives also deserve criminal charges over this event?
The fact that the video was uploaded to Google gave the prosecutors the evidence necessary to go after the kids in question. Google, itself, had no proactive role in uploading the video. Neither Google, nor the executives in question, had anything to do with the video whatsoever. In fact, Google took the video down within hours of being alerted to it. It serves no viable purpose under any justice system whatsoever to charge Google executives for the content in the video. The report notes that the kids in the video hit the disabled boy with a pack of tissues as well. I would think that the tissue company has just as much, if not more, responsibility for the video than Google. Will we soon see charges against its execs as well?
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Filed Under: italy, lawsuits, liability, online video
Companies: google
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Viva Italia!
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Yes, clearly they're guilty
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legality filter
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Re: legality filter
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Re: legality filter
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Gotta love it
Yes, France, yes Italy.. the internet is all about you, just like the US and its ignorant rant about internet gambling the web is allllll about you.
F**king idiots.
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Re: legality filter
I'm reminded of the saying that goes something like "tis better to remain silent and let people THINK you're stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt". Think about it. Thousands of videos, say 2 minutes each... just how long IS a day in your world? Idiot.
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Re: legality filter
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Re: legality filter
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Re: Viva Italia!
If you had any familiarity with how website technology and ethics work, you'd understand that holding a site owner responsible for user content could potentially destroy the internet as we know it today.
You might also realize that the internet crosses cultural boundaries, and YOU have to accept other cultural values as well.
But, hey, if you Italians want to ruin the web for everyone, please, go right ahead. The rest of the world will continue laughing at you for years to come.
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Youtube Eulogy
No, Google cannot afford to make itself a shooting target as large as the Earth. It will celebrate its "spin-offs" by breaking up into hundreds of little companies, while search engine technology will become a generic commodity that is maintained locally.
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Re: Re: legality filter
well, *that* would certainly put a stop to much of the rubbish that causes these complaints ;-)
(it would also probably stop the service, but that's another story)
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Re: Re: Viva Italia!
dude, taunting crippled people is wrong... even when the disability is mental.
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It is surely their fault....
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: Youtube Eulogy
Come back after your sixth birthday, you poor, crippled moron. Freedom of speech is not a "baby boomer obsession," but rather a Constitutionally protected right. But they don't teach about the Constitution in pre-school, do they? When you're older, say in the fifth grade, maybe you'll be smart enough to take a civics class, where they'll explain to you about the Constitution, and other abstract concepts, like rights.
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Re: #16
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aplause
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Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
Do Google executives care more about abstract rights, or paying the rent in Silicon Valley? Or should Google executives attend fifth grade classes on Italian civics?
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Re: Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: legality filter
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Re: Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: legality filter
Otherwise forget it..
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Re: aplause
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Religious Freedom on the Decline
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11784873
When these courts sue Google for "religious aggression", is Google going to spend billions on lawyers and lobbyists to demand that laws in other countries be changed? Not a chance.
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One thay...
Or they could develop some interesting algorithms to detect faulty images and language (they already are indexing voice in some videos... who knows how much time it'll take them to accomplish a full blown "let's allow a machine to understand the whole video" ai?)... AI.Google.com.
Anyways, I'm not so sure suing the excecs makes any sense. What is the purpose of such action? Now, if they dissmised the video alerts, and just left it online.... That would have made sense.
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Re: Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
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Re: aplause
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Public Service
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Re: Viva Italia!
There are many more offensive things to find on the internet than YouTube.
Google is a big easy target for little stupid Italian prosecutors because they do not know who else to blame.
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You don't go to jail in a lawsuit
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Re: Re: Viva Italia!
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Arrest them!
The ridiculousness of some people still amazes me.
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Re: Public Service
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i.e.
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who cares what you think
censorship destroys innovation and progress.
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Re: legality filter
How would Google know the video wasn't staged? It wouldn't be the first time someone pulled a video hoax. Who determines what is free speech and expression and what is depictions of actual illegal activity? Do you really want an army of lawyers censoring everything on the internet?
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Communication Medium
To make an anology, the internet is air and google is a large stadium, except this stadium is omi-present throughout all air and has no physical size and can overlap with other stadiums without issues.
Having google 'filter' all that each person says in their stadium before they say it, seems like an issue. Sure, if you 'overhear' what someone says, you can report it, but to have a person look over every word is impractical.
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A Mentally Handicapped Kid choked on an Italian Sausage While Trying to Speak French
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Re: Religious Freedom on the Decline
You've also failed at earning any respect, as having completely lost the argument of this blog post's topic you have dived into trying to make another point you think makes some sort of moral statement.
Unfortunately, you fail again as your new case is just as dumb as your last one.
The reason Google Exec.'s, Bill Gates and others the money and potential desire to do so haven't/won't hired lobbyists to change religiously aggressive laws in nations around the world is because religious aggression is a societal/cultural problem before a legal one.
You change then environment, not the laws, first.
And whether or not they do so, or want to is completely irrelevant to the points in here.
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: legality filter
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Angry
The Italians are just angry over Ricardo Ricco getting busted for doping in the Tour de France...
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And More BombS
I've got an idea.. Let's all help Iran get a nuke so we can get this party started right!!
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: Viva Italia!
Responsibility should only attach to those who are responsible-- who commit the act in question. Otherwise it's not actually responsibility but merely government oppression.
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Re: Re: Re: Viva Italia!
> supposed to be an illuminated statement.
Not sure why you expect the statement to be illuminated. But an explanation of it is simple: you're Italian, as are the rest of your countrymen, hence the use of the general "you"; you're Italian, as are the rest of your countrymen, hence the use of the adjective "Italian".
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Re: Viva Italia!
/your women are hairy as some men I have seen..Go tell them to shave their faces..
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Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
> in pre-school, do they?
Unfortunately they don't seem to be teaching about the Constitution in public schools of any level these days.
Kids can instantly identify Nelson Mandela and Jesse Jackson but they can't pick Thomas Jefferson out of a photo line-up to save their lives.
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Viva Italia
We can tell people that they are wrong, dead wrong, amazingly and completely wrong without belittling them.
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I'm hoping thats a bit of sarcasm.
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Not sure if this was mentioned
BTW Italia you need to catch up on recent news as this is very similar to Ebay's recent win over Tiffany & Co. Ebay cannot be held responsible for the contents of the auctions anymore than Google can be held responsible for the contents of it's video servers.
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Re: legality filter
Wheres the law that said you are entitled not to be offended by words?
oh, wait, we're talking about Europe....that bastion of freedom that jails people for disputing anything relating to the holocaust not OK'd by the JDL or Israel.
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I hate people who work to the best of their ability too, but....
Try to understand, it's not the 10 people who read internal google alerts and press delete on videos they then review that are to blame. In fact blaming them doesn't even make them do a better job, or get more people on their team to help. Blame the world for not voluntarily taking a second out of their time to flag the video they just watched, if it deserves flagging.
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Fair enough.
Don't forget to exclude others: The ISP's who routed the traffic, the Government (or Government agency) that authorizes internet in the country, the company who produced the copper wire and insulation that the data traveled over, the company who mined the copper that was used in the making of the wire. The PC manufacturer, as well as the company's the provided the chips, circuit boards, data storage, network connectivity and other required services to access the internet. The power company that provided power to the servers and client in question, the company that provides the power company with coal or other fuels to generate power. The company who makes the generators, along with the companies that make the control, cooling, and other systems required to power the servers, switches, routers, and such. The maker of the Operating Systems the data was hosted on.
This could almost literally go on for pages and pages.
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Incredible hypocrisy
Keeping on-topic, the people to deal with here are the obnoxious brats who taunted the kid, who won't be too hard to find given that they publicised themselves in such an obvious way, and perhaps their parents who might be held accountable for raising such idiots!
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What about the parents?
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Why sue the kids or their parents when they probably don't have much money, when you can sue millionaires? This is the real impetus behind this stupidity. GREED.
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Re: Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
/On topic
The only people that are responsible for the actions of the over developed DNA shots are the kids, and there parents. It's just nice to see that they where stupid enough to record and upload it so they could get caught. I hope they get there butt's tanned good then maybe they thing about what they did.
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Just one thing...
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Berlusconi has been charged with mafia collusion, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges. He's good though - never gone to jail.
If Google Exec's go to jail, I'll flip the bill!
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Re: Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
You know that old saying, when in Rome, do as the Romans?
When using a US-based service, terms are under US Law...
Have the best day ever.
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Re: Youtube Eulogy
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Re: Viva Italia!
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Re: legality filter
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Youtube Eulogy
So, it's only the kids who are stupid, are they? What's your age again?
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Problem is, every time a government tries to go against Google in some way, people get really, really pissed off. They keep targeting Google for understanding the new business world, and yet, too stupid to just do what they do, which is doing things right.
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Bias, bias, bias.
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Re: legality filter
Stock photography sites do review uploads for quality of content and subject matter. These sites can take up to a month or more before an upload gets through the review queue. Is this what users expect from sites like Google Video, YouTube and Flickr?
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"Italy Wants To Put Google Execs In Jail Over Uploaded Video"
"YOUR ADDICTION TO CRACK IS SERIOUSLY AFFECTING YOUR JOB PERFORMANCE!! BUTTHOLES"
" }:> "
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Italy sues Google!?
I was afraid of exactly this more than 15 years ago but believed it would be purely political rather than a personal vendetta by a Machiavellian narcissist. Let's hope Google fights 'tooth and nail', after all the internet is the blood and guts of Google.
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