Italy - the land where you have to show govt. ID to use a cybercafe
[IIRC]?
I think what's different is really the messenger angle - many countries
try to ban YouTube itself in reaction to particular material (e.g.,
Pakistan earlier this year). That case had other twists as well.
Is the main issue one at hand the (lack of) safe harbor? In India, the
CEO of the local ebay (baazee.com) was arrested and even spent a little
time in jail awaiting charges (in 2004, I think) because of a
pornographic CD forsale, which they removed within hours of figuring out
what was being sold (an MMS of schoolkids). Is the Italy case special
or just one of many examples where jurisdictions, laws, and norms collide?
Rahul
Lauren Weinstein wrote:
What are you in for, kid? - "I worked for Google ... "
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000465.html
Greetings. Lost in the post-election buzz is a story of potentially
major concern regarding free speech and the Internet, and the
controversial issues of who is responsible for materials posted to
the Net.
In Italy, prosecutors are bringing charges against four former and
current Google employees, charging them with defamation and failure
to appropriately control personal data
( http://www.reuters.com/article/americasDealsNews/idUSTRE4A48VG20081105 ).
The defendants in this case didn't post anything themselves. At
issue is the posting of a video in 2006 to YouTube that showed
students humiliating a youth with Down syndrome. Italian
authorities are asserting that the posting of this video is contrary
to Italian law, even though the video was removed from YouTube by
Google within hours of Google being notified of its existence.
The ramifications of this case could be major indeed. YouTube
reportedly receives hundreds of thousands of new videos daily
(according to Google, at least 10 hours of video per minute are
being uploaded).
Various countries around the world maintain an array of sometimes
onerous and often conflicting rules about what constitutes
"forbidden" video materials, and in some cases have at times
pressured Google to remove various items and/or at least temporarily
tried to block their populations from accessing YouTube at all.
Of course, these efforts don't ever really block the distribution of
the videos in question, but the harassment value can be damaging in
its own right.
But Italy, by bringing charges against Google executives relating to
a video that was promptly removed from YouTube, are breaking very
dangerous ground.
A successful prosecution in this case could lead to the draconian
situation where no legitimate Internet site would be willing to
allow videos to be posted without full pre-screening -- and even
that assumes the expertise to determine what did or did not pass
muster under any given set of national standards, which vary
enormously and are continually changing.
This would create an utterly untenable situation that could bring
the entire concept of "Web 2.0" user-contributed content to a
grinding halt, at least out in the light. Underground -- well, we
can safely assume that the content so distasteful to those
governments would continue to flow under the radar. That's the
technical reality of the Internet. But vast amounts of completely
innocent materials would be stifled from legal distribution under
the impractical demands for full proactive screening.
Given the reasoning behind Italy's prosecution -- especially if the
prosecution is successful, why shouldn't we expect ever more
countries to try take the same "shoot the messenger" approach? And
why should we expect them to stop at videos involving children being
harassed? How about "undesirable" political content? And audio
materials? Why not try to restrict the posting of ordinary text and
html pages the same way?
If anything you don't like shows up, toss the owners of the Web
service in question into a dank cell and pull out the trusty Taser
to show that you really mean business!
Seriously, with this prosecution, Italy is playing with fire, and
the associated mindset could ultimately threaten to undermine the
continuing growth, or even the continued operation, of vast aspects
of the Internet that untold millions of persons around the world use
and now depend upon every day.
If cooler heads don't prevail in Italy -- and even if they do -- we
could have a very big problem on our hands just a short ways down
the line.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
