Feb 24, 2010, 10:44 GMT
Milan, Italy - A Milan court on Wednesday convicted three Google Italy executives of failing to prevent the posting on the Internet in 2006 of a video showing students bullying and beating a boy with Down's syndrome.
In what was described as a landmark ruling, the three executives each received suspended sentences of six months in jail after being found guilty on violation of privacy charges.
Presiding Judge Oscar Magi absolved the three on defamation charges.
The trial was described as the first in which executives of Google were being held responsible for the contents found through the search engine, and is likely to have ramifications for content providers around the globe, Italian media said.
The three were identified by the ANSA news agency as David Carl Drummond, the former president and chief executive officer of Google Italy and currently the company's senior vice president, George De Los Reyes, a retired board member and Peter Fleischer, who is responsible for privacy issues for Google in Europe.
Google indicated it would appeal the ruling which a spokesman described as 'astonishing.'
'We believe that this decision is to say the least astonishing, given that our colleagues had nothing to do with the video in question. They did not record it, they did not post it and they never saw it,' Google spokesman Marco Pancini, was quoted as saying by ANSA.
The ruling by the court represents 'an attack on the fundamental principles of freedom (of expression) on which the Internet is built,' Pancini addded.
Prosecutors argued that Google broke Italian privacy law by not seeking the consent of all the parties involved before allowing the video to go online.
Google's lawyers said that the video was removed as soon as it was brought to its attention and that the US-based firm also provided information on who posted it.
As a result four students were expelled from their school in Turin, northern Italy.
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