Well, for those that haven't already heard, this week has been somewhat of a historic one for Italy's web laws - and not in a good way. This is because an Italian judge has convicted three former Google employees for invasion of privacy, after a video of students bullying an autistic classmate was uploaded to Youtube in 2006.
Google immediately co-operated with the police within hours of learning about the clip - which was then instantly removed, but nonetheless a prosecutor decided to take four former employees to court over the incident, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy. Though acquited of the first charge, three of the four defendents were found guilty of the second, and handed a six-month suspended sentence.
Now - as Charles Arthur points out in his Guardian piece - this carries some quite serious implications for Google's business in Italy, implying as it does that hosting services, like Youtube (or even Google blogger, Google docs etc?) must pre-screen all user-generated content, or risk taking legal responsibility for something which could land them in court.
Understandably the majority of blogs and articles out there have pointed out what a ridiculous ruling this is - and many expect it will be overturned by an EU appeal court as Google will of course be contesting the verdict. However, like the recent Chinese email hacking fiasco, the whole episode threatens the long term operation of Google in this territory - if it is not resolved swiftly and satisfactorily.
Since Youtube has never turned a profit in its five-year existence, it would be highly unfeasable that Google would opt for the extra expense of pre-screening all videos - at the same time it seems unlikely that it will expose its staff to consist threat of legal action by continuing to operate along current policies. Instead it would surely be easier to pull out of Italy instead... setting quite a dangerous precedent for walking away from huge and essential markets.
Of course this all sounds hyperbolic right now, and indeed most expect that it won't actually come to anything so serious as this. However, the whole diplomatic nightmare currently unfolding does evidence just how fragile the operation of even a huge company like Google really is, in the face of precedent-setting individual cases such as this one.
Dejan Levi
