The privacy counsel for Google is facing time in an Italian lockup for a video. In Italy content providers can be held liable for said. This may be a precedent. I’ve not been able to find any news of similar incidents.
From eWeek:
Google’s Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer is facing Italian criminal charges for Google’s posting of a video showing four Turin high school teenagers harassing a Down syndrome student. The charges are thought to be the first criminal sanction ever pursued against a privacy professional for his company’s actions, according to the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Fleischer is expected to appear Feb. 3 before the Criminal Court of Milan. If convicted, Fleischer faces a minimum of three years in prison. The IAPP, which first broke the story Feb. 2, said Italian Internet service providers are not responsible third-party content, but they must remove objectionable material if complaints are received. Content providers such as Google, however, are responsible for all posted content.
How will this affect how US companies treat their content? Will this start a trend towards responsible content management? Doubtful even if he is convicted. The really strange part is that this story has had a low yield in news feeds. Mea culpa, I read about it when it came out but, didn’t manage to pick it up. It hit the wires two days ago and as of yet has had little to no coverage. As pointed out by /Hoff “2 days is an eternity in Internet time”. (cred for kicking me in the pants to post this)
For the full story, read on.