Warning to others
Italian prosecutors are looking to jail four Google
executives for up to a year for allowing an internet video showing the bullying
of a teenager with Down Syndrome to be seen on a Google video site.
The four have been on trial in a Milan court over the
video. Prosecutors argue Google had a legal responsibility to prevent it being
shown and yet it stayed on the site for nearly two months in late 2006. The teenager was bullied by four students in front of
more than a dozen others who did not intervene. Prosecutors want to stick three of the executives in jail
for a year and six months for a fourth company official on trial.
On trial are David Carl Drummond, the head of Google
Italy's managing board at the time, George De Los Reyes, a board member who has
since quit, Peter Fleitcher, in charge of privacy protection in Europe and
Arvind Desikan, head of videos for Europe. Desikan is only up for six months in jail.