Here in the U.S. ISPs and phone companies are not liable for content transmitted over its networks. Meaning, they don’t have to monitor every single thing that comes through and make sure it goes through an approval process. If someone brings legally objectionable content (e.g. violated intellectual property rights) to their attention, then they’re required to remove it. But if they had to do all the monitoring themselves, there’s no way the Internet could grow to the level it does today. The task would be too unsurmountable.

But it turns out in Italy, that’s not the case as three Google employees were convicted of a reprehensible video of an autistic kid being bullied. When the video was posted in 2006 and it was brought to Google’s attention, they removed it immediately (Read Google’s full account). The employees were not in any way involved in the video at all, it’s just that they happen to work for the company that hosted the video for a brief period of time. Google says it’s going to appeal Italy’s decision.

This is not the first time an issue like this has come up, but it’s the first time I can think of that a hosting company has actually been convicted of content posted on their site that they removed the moment they were notified. I don’t understand Italy’s laws, but if they require non-stop monitoring of content that travels over wires, why don’t they convict their local phone company every time someone uses a phone to make a drug deal or any other type of illegal activity? It’s absurd to think that such a law could stick. But I’m more intrigued with how they came about thinking that it could. What do you think led them to this decision? And why is this the first conviction of such a case? Are there others?

Creative Commons photo attribution ul_marga / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0