Google Executives Face Jail Time for Italian Video

The entire case is really grottesque. It’s thank to that video that the idiots (sorry, I can't just find another term) got busted and proper actions have been taken to make some justice for the boy with Down syndrome.

This is only yet another way to prove that our (I am italian) justice system is such a total failure on so many side that it hurts.

As an Italian who has left Italy in disgust several years ago, I have a hard time considering my country of origin to be a first world nation. Companies should be weary of doing business in Italy until the draconian laws there are revoked.

In related news, they also seem to have outlawed blogging: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/26/italian_law_kills_bl...

Italy's in a bad way right now. Consider that they still have Berlusconi as their leader, who first made his appearance in the early 90'ies. Imagine if we still had Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and Bush Sr. contending the presidency in the US.

I think long term that Italy will continue to punch above its weight, as it has in the past: Roman empire, Renaissance, and some pretty decent stuff in decades past, for that matter - not bad for a relatively small country without much in the way of natural resources. But I don't know when that will be. We're headed back there next month, but we may not be staying too long. It's sad, because it's such a wonderful place in many ways, with plenty of very bright, creative, hard working people.

I'm actually less shocked that they're bringing criminal charges than that it's illegal to post a video making fun of the mentally handicapped. It's clearly in bad taste, but I can't imagine living somewhere where even the poster of the video had committed a crime.

This is such a joke...does anyone really think that Google's senior executives are going to face jail time due to some trial in Italy? Laughable.

Edit* this must be why google patented the floating offshore datacenters...so they can operate outside of territorial waters and evade extradition.

If Exec's are directly personally responsible for content created by user's of a site in Italy it kinda makes you think twice about operating a site there. Pretty scary actually. I don't condone the video, nor do I think web services should not take some responsibility to monitor content, but it's not feasible or sane to assume they can catch all or most of what might be illegal in one country or the other.

Interesting to note that the individuals named are all non-Italian Google execs and employees. Perhaps the Italian government has no real intention of punishing individuals, but just wants to make a stink about this to try to scare UGC sites into being responsible for their content. The impossibility of extradition gives them cover. If they named Italian Google executives or employees, which I'm guessing they easily could have, they'd actually have to put people in jail and face the absurdity of these changes in a very concrete way.

This will be about as successful as the MPAA's attempts sue The Pirate Bay, etc.

After this trial ends, they should just not offer service to Italian internet users or businesses ... Ideally they should set up some sore of embargo with all the major players [content providers, network owners, software producers, etc]. I think that a lot of companies would be willing to join in to help make an example of Italy so other countries don't try the same sort of bullshit in the future.

Any free services listing Italian IP address ranges?

isn't Google covered by precedents, or at least their terms of service?