Google to appeal privacy convictions

Friday 26 February 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

A court in Italy has convicted three Google employees in a privacy trial concerning content uploaded to Google Video in 2006, shortly before the firm acquired YouTube.

The Google executives - Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes - received suspended six-month sentences. A fourth employee, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.

The four were accused of breaking Italian privacy laws by allowing the video to be posted on line. While the judge, Oscar Magi, absolved the defendants of the charge of defamation, he found them guilty of privacy violations.

The video in question was filmed and uploaded by students at a Turin school and showed them bullying an autistic pupil. In his post on the Official Google Blog on Wednesday of this week, Matt Sucherman (Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel - Europe, Middle East and Africa), writes:

"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."

To Google's amazement, the Italian authorities decided to indict the four Google employees. Says Matt Sucherman, "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."

One of the four, David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer at Google, was reported by the BBC as being "outraged" by the events. "I intend to vigorously appeal this dangerous ruling. It sets a chilling precedent," he said. "If individuals like myself and my Google colleagues who had nothing to do with the harassing incident, its filming or its uploading onto Google Video can be held criminally liable solely by virtue of our position at Google, every employee of any Internet hosting service faces similar liability," he added.

Richard Thomas, the UK's former Information Commissioner and consultant to privacy law firm Hunton & Williams, said the case was "ridiculous". He told the BBC news website that it was akin to "prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post".

Unless rapidly overturned, the verdict has serious ramifications for content providers around the globe. Google argued during the trial that pre-screening of all YouTube content was an impossible task. Technology reporters and web users alike are concerned that this controversial verdict could lead to fundamental changes in how the Internet works.

Google's Matt Sucherman warns that the ruling may affect the freedom and creativity for which the Internet is renowned:

"(But) we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them - every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video - then the web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear."

This rogue ruling is in danger of giving the Italian nation a reputation as something of a technological dinosaur. Wake up and smell the Cappuccino!

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