To add something more to this piece of news: Google, with YouTube, is disturbing our televisions, owned or controlled by our prime minister Berlusconi, by competing with them and spreading news that are hidden or distorted in TV. This will not be the last attack Google faces from Italy.
News Corp. knows this very well. In the last year this government passed some laws clearly against their satellite offer, favouring the TV channels of our prime minister. Now it's the turn of Google.
That's my take on it as well, I think these 'privacy concerns' are just a cheap way to use a disabled person to garner sympathy for the crusade against big bad google that is offering Italian consumers alternative video content that does not come from 'Papi'.
Berlusconi ought to be the one in the docket. But then he'll just pass another law that exempts him...
Exactly. The main concerns of the government right now about internet are YouTube and Facebook, because they are the main channels on which news spread.
Mediaset, the Berlusconi Company owning all his televisions also sued Google for copyright of content published on YouTube. Every television in the world is working with Google to remove this content or to profit from it. Berlusconi is the only one who attacks it to take it down.
This week there has also been a similar case on Facebook, for a stupid group on down children. The government is trying every now and then to find excuses to pass laws against internet freedom.
> Berlusconi ought to be the one in the docket. But then he'll just pass another law that exempts him...
The saddest thing about this is that it is true. He already passed 19 laws just to avoid jail, and he is about to pass another two...
I don't want to defend Berlusconi here, but if we continue to blame him by default we will never see the truth.
p.s. doomed like in "doomed to became again a place known only for its cheap and not specialized labor"
There are of course exceptions for public figures and events, and there's an interesting debate going on with lawsuit after lawsuit trying to balance freedom of the press with personality rights. At least in some cases it is hard to see how the benefit of the public seeing a politician in swim wear outweighs his or her rights to privacy.
This hasn't stopped sites Xing, StudiVZ or Hyves from becoming very popular sites and building successful businesses.
There's also an ongoing debate in Germany and other EU countries, to what extent UGC-sites are liable for their content and how much they should police it. Majority opinion: not liable, police some, react quickly to take-down notices (though your mileage may vary from court to court).
As for the case here, the main blame is clearly on the guys who shot and submitted the video. The question is whether Google has reacted appropriately to the take-down request and whether it has tried hard enough to keep the vid off of youtube (keeping an eye on the inevitable wave of re-uploads).
Also, Google has responded:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/serious-threat-to-web...
Italy is just a very old and backward country, with many people that simply don't have a clue about what is going on...
Italy is neither old (Italy was born as a state in 1861) nor backward. The problem is that our prime minister has a personal interest in shutting down as much as possible the web as a news/social service.
It is possible to argue that, as you said, "many people don't have a clue what is going on" but I believe it applies to most (all?) other countries as well.
And yes, old. The President of the Republic is 84, the Prime Minister is 73...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_age
Of course old doesn't necessarily mean bad. Japan, Germany, and Austria are all up there too and seem to be doing better than Italy.