Four Google executives should not be held responsible for a video posted online that showed teenagers abusing an autistic youth in Turin, their lawyers argued Wednesday in an Italian court.
The executives are being tried in absentia in Milan – a case that has been painted as a battle for privacy rights by the prosecution and a threat to freedom of expression by Google.
Prosecutors have asked for sentences ranging from six months to one year in jail for the defendants, who are charged with defamation and violating privacy. The four deny wrongdoing. A verdict is expected in late January.
Under Italian law, “the person who uploads the video online must get permission from the person who is seen in the images, Google can’t do it,” defense lawyer Giuseppe Vaciago told The Associated Press. “It would be very difficult for any platform, not just Google, to acquire information on the subject filmed.”
The trial is being held behind closed doors. Vaciago spoke after Wednesday’s hearing in a telephone interview with The AP.
Prosecutors say the case is about enforcing Italy’s privacy laws as well as ensuring that large corporations do their utmost to block inappropriate content or quickly delete it.
The Mountain View, California, company says it considers the trial a threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers into an impossible task – prescreening the thousands of hours of footage uploaded every day onto Web sites like the Google-owned YouTube.
“The issue at stake in this courtroom affects all Internet companies and all Internet users,” Google said in a statement Wednesday. “(It is) akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post.”
The defendants are Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former chief financial officer George Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer – for whom prosec utors requested a year in jail – and senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan, for whom six months were asked.
None was involved with producing, uploading or viewing the video, according to the defense. Lawyers will continue their closing arguments on Dec. 23, and a ruling could come on Jan. 27.
Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome, alerted prosecutors to the 2006 video showing an autistic student in Turin being beaten and insulted by bullies at school.
The video was uploaded on Google’s video site before the company’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube.
Google eventually took down the video, though the two sides disagree on how fast the company reacted to complaints. Thanks to the footage and Google’s cooperation, the four bullies were identified and sentenced to community service by a juvenile court.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles.
Nakamura Whitehouse, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years.
Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation.
EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.”
Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.”
34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More