Authorities postponed up until September the trial of Google executives charged in Italy over the publication of a video on Google's YouTube where a handicapped teen was beaten has been postponed. The case was delayed because an interpreter was ill and will now be resumed in September.
"On trial are Google's senior vice president and chief legal Officer David Drummond, former chief financial officer George Reyes, senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan, and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer," BBC News noted. They face up to three years in prison if found guilty.
The case was delayed because an interpreter was ill.
Prosecutors argue that Google did not have adequate content filters or enough staff to monitor it, and one of them (or both) caused the inadequate publication of the video.
An important point of the sue is that the content was uploaded without the consent of all parties involved.
"If the judge rules that videos posted to sites such as YouTube or Dailymotion do need the permission of all those appearing in it before it is posted, it will have a huge impact on social media sites viewable in Italy", said Nick Lockett, a partner with DL Legal, to BBC News.
Google said: "We feel that bringing this case to court is totally wrong. It's akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post". "As we have repeatedly made clear, our hearts go out to the victim and his family. We are pleased that as a result of our cooperation the bullies in the video have been identified and punished".
The video had been posted to YouTube prior to Google purchasing the company but were made because they had not been taken down.
