Posted by Halla @ Wed 02 24, 2010 11:14
I can finally use this old joke Ive been holding onto for years. Ready?
"Why is Italy shaped like a boot?"
"Because you cant fit all of that bullshit in a shoe."
Ok, please stop groaning and/or chuckling and lets get to the "WTF now?" section of this post.
Actually, rather than go over the whole thing myself in this instance I thought it best if it came right from the horses mouth since it was well summarized in my opinion (in this case the horse is Matt Sucherman, Googles VP and Deputy General Counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa):
Quote:
"In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved."...
..."But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed."
"Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload."
..."But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed."
"Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload."
Seriously. You aren't dreaming. This actually happened.
I say if this is how its going to be, pull the net out of Italy altogether. Nothing is safe according to this suit. You now potentially can be liable as a provider for any/all content users submit. This means any medium that users can insert anything into (pictures, video, text) could be potentially offensive and therefore as a safety measure must be removed from Italian access or face legal repercussions.
This means twitter, all social networking sites, all photo and video sharing sites such as photobucket and imageshack, all forms of chat, and even email.
The overall implications of this are astounding.
Attention Italy!
The abbreviation of your country has just been changed from IT to IY!
Your country will no longer share the same abbreviation as "Information Technology".
That perk has been revoked.
Now that I think of it, making sure access to information is monitored for "abusive material" has been done in Italy before.
Im trying to remember who was responsible for that...
Oh yeah, now I remember. Berlusconi.
No, wait... that's who is doing it now...
I was thinking of someone else...
Mussolini! Thats who it was! Whatever happened to him?
Its coming back to me now.
Wasnt he shot in the chest, then kicked, and spat on, hung upside down on a meathook and stoned?
Check this out if you would like to see just some of the day-to-day censorship the Italian citizenry are subjected to.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/search-c ... le.it&q1='
Try a few searches. Kinda crazy. Never guessed that was happening did you?
Here's is another interesting article on Italian censorship:
http://edri.blogactiv.eu/2008/09/26/the ... italy-but/
I really hope that the Italian public wakes up and starts doing something about this type of thing.
Maybe pulling the plug on Italy would be a much needed slap in the face to incite and wake the general public.
Related reading for further proof that this isnt a bad joke like the one I told:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/ ... italy.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_ ... ogle_trial
http://www.dailytech.com/Italy+Convicts ... e17766.htm
http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law ... ourt-rules
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360396,00.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8533695.stm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TopStories
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/24/technol ... onviction/
Update:
I swear I may strangle someone over this situation.
Heres a generalization of some comments Ive heard.
Note C = comment and R = rebuttal.
C: Google is responsible for what it has on its servers much like a property owner is responsible for what happens on their property.
R: The government is not responsible when you crash your car while using their property (the road). You are not responsible if 20 white supremacists decide to hold a meeting on your front lawn without your knowledge.
C: Google should filter the videos posted.
R: No way is that possible, especially when a site like youtube is free. Also, if by some miracle Google was able to have a staff that was able to keep up with the amount of video uploaded daily - (every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet - for once I will let you do the math on how many staffers working 8 hour shifts that would take, please email me your answers and equatations
) who are these staffers to decide whats deemed "unacceptable"? Whats acceptable in some countries isnt in others. Its a nearly if not completely impossible task.Back on point though, This ruling is scary.
What this means is that if a host is responsible for what its users say/do, then by that logic the following applies:
All telecom companies are liable for the content on their wires if I call someone up and abuse them. Imagine prank callers bankrupting the telcoms from the resulting lawsuits?
Carriers and shippers are liable for their content if I deem a package or item I receive to be offensive in some manner (OMG this packaging looks kind of like nipples!)
If I get on a flight and get into a confrontation with another passenger, the airline is liable.
I got an email about Viagra that I find offensive! The ISP and email provider are liable!
I just received my newspaper and found an article offensive. Looks to me like the post system has a lawsuit on its hands!
I typed "tit mouse" into googles image search and was offended at some of the results! Googles liable AGAIN!
Some kid just walk past me wearing a t-shirt with an offensive slogan on it. Quick! Sue the retailer he bought it froms executives!
I could go on and on (actually, I kind of did... sorry) but to summarize, the way to solve this issue in my opinion is to just completely pull your services from the entire country. Let them sit there with no outside stimulus related to you in any way that may possibly offend them and cause them to file more lawsuits.
Maybe the affected public will start removing the people in power that are making these incredibly stupid decisions.
Maybe.
[1]