Italian ruling against Google executives: reports and comments

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Giorgio Ghersi on February 26, 2010 at 3:36pm

Mah...
This Italian judge (not necessarily all, or even the majority, of them!) doesn't seem to understand Internet rules of the game, while a lot of the International Community don't seem to understand Italian Laws.

The judge (any judge!) enforces a body of laws, with a certain degree (the least possible) of interpretation and as non-instrumentally as possible (since in those cases, it's easy to have the sentence rebutted in appeal).
Without going into the merit, we can easily assume that the laws on which the ruling is based upon are outdated, or at least not informed of the latest 10/15 years of WWW reality.
Maybe this will shake things up a bit...

What I found interesting is that whenever major private US Corporate interests are threaten around the world, the US Government feels the urge to take a stand (through their top executives, institutional and local).
Thanks G. (not Google), the government paid out the car industry and not the web-search one, otherwise imagine how more vehement the defense could have been (Toyota's ears may be whistling right now).

Anyway, the fact that Italian judges may try to act legislatively shouldn't surprise anybody (who has been paying attention), because the Italian legislators are too busy fighting for power or defending themselves from (often justified) judicial action.

The fact that YOUTube (now Google), which made its fortune on copyright infringement (perpetuated by OTHERS, of course...), may come under scrutiny for crimes/misdemeanors/ethically-reprehensible-actions broadcast through it (while it charges for advertisement right alongside the broadcasting) is only fair; that doesn't mean that the specific ruling is reasonable, or even justified.

The times of Italian justice are also not a surprise (and -yes!- they are ridiculous), since, in Internet time, 4 years is an eternity.

Let's not even start discussing how come China censorship of YouTube/Google (and any other search) has been acceptable for years, in order to get access to 20% of world population market, and to the fastest growing consumers pool.

Did I forget anybody?
Ha! Yes...
Countries run by traditional-media-moguls may not necessarily like international Internet based advertisement agencies.
:)

• ▶ Reply