Update: Milan prosecutors seek prison sentences for Google execs
MediaPost has an update on the ongoing trial in Milan against Google executives. Italian authorities charged four Google executives with “criminal charges of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data.” The case concerns a video showing a disabled boy being harassed by classmates that was uploaded to Google Video’s Italian site. Google removed the video within 24 hours of a removal request being made.
Italian law enforcement officials are seeking jail terms for four Google executives charged with violating the country’s privacy laws by allegedly allowing the hosting of an offensive video. [...]
Last week, Milan prosecutors presented their case and also requested jail terms of up to one year for chief legal officer David Drummond, global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer and former chief financial officer George De Los Reyes, and a term of six months for Arvind Desikan, the former head of Google Video Europe.
The prosecutors made the request as part of their closing arguments; none of the executives have been found guilty.
Even if convicted, the Google officials aren’t likely to be imprisoned because Italian courts suspend sentences of less than three years for defendants without prior records.
Google will not officially present its case until Dec. 14, but Fleischer recently set out his defense on his blog.
“It should be obvious, but none of us Google employees had any involvement with the uploaded video. None of us produced, uploaded or reviewed it,” Fleischer wrote last week on his blog.
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