Convicting three employees of the search giant is madness.
In the annals of judicial folly, a place of honor ought to be reserved for this week's conviction of three Google executives by an Italian court. Their crimes, apparently, included a failure of clairvoyance and an inability to time-travel.
The case involved a video clip shot by some depraved Italian teens who beat up a Down syndrome child, recorded the deed and uploaded it to the Web. When the video, which was posted on Google's now-defunct Google Video service, was reported, Google promptly took it down and assisted the Italian police in apprehending the thugs.
For their trouble, four Google executives—none of whom were even aware of the video's existence until after it had been taken down—were charged with violating the privacy of the beaten-up boy and with "criminal defamation," a considerably more serious charge.
All four were acquitted on the defamation charge, but three were convicted of the privacy violation and given six-month suspended sentences.
It's hard to see what interest of justice is served by holding Google's employees responsible for the actions of someone else. Under European Union law, Web hosting companies are meant to have a safe harbor against culpability for content posted to their sites by outside users, and this gives Google solid grounds for appeal.
The criminals here were the ones who committed the assault and filmed and posted it—and they've been brought to justice already. Prosecuting Google employees because they couldn't know in advance what might be uploaded, or go back in time to un-post the video, is madness.
