Italy convicts Google executives over a video

˝Google will appeal this astonishing decision˝ Echickson said, adding that the sentence ˝attacks the principle of freedom of expression.˝

MILAN, February 24, 2010 (AFP) - A court in Milan on Wednesday convicted three Google Italy executives over an Internet video showing a handicapped teenager being bullied, Google spokesman Bill Echikson said.

Each executive was given a six-month suspended sentence for violation of privacy, Echikson told AFP, adding that Google would appeal the verdict.

"Google will appeal this astonishing decision" Echickson said, adding that the sentence "attacks the principle of freedom of expression".

"None of these four people had anything to do with the video. They didn't film it, they didn't upload it, they didn't review it. Nonetheless they were held criminally responsible," Echickson told reporters.

Of the four executives on trial, David Drummond, chairman of the board of Google Italy at the time; George De Los Reyes, then a board member who has since left the firm; and Peter Fleischer, who was responsible for privacy issues were convicted for violation of privacy.

The four executives were all acquitted of the defamation accusation, and Arvind Desikan, who was in charge of the video section at the time, was acquitted of all charges.

The court ordered Google to pay fines, and to publish the court decision in the Italian press.

The video, uploaded on Google Video where it remained for nearly two months in late 2006, showed four students bullying the teenager with Down's syndrome in front of more than a dozen others who did not intervene.

The bullies were suspended from their school in Turin, northern Italy, for the rest of the academic year over the episode, which sparked a national furore.

"If we are responsible for each vetting, each photo, each video, each posting ... then the web as we know it will cease to exist ... and the technical benefits will disappear," Echikson said.