Google blamed for violent video in Italy

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andy Oram <[email protected]>
Date: November 28, 2006 1:18:53 PM EST
To: [email protected]
Subject: Google blamed for violent video in Italy

Following on the story of Newt Gingrich, this underreported item might
be interesting.

Andy Oram

------------

http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/11/ 
google_blamed_for_violent_vide.html

    When Google bought YouTube, lawyers and business analysts across  
the U.S.
    warned it would be swamped by lawsuits over copyright violations.  
Sounds
    scary enough-but what about facing criminal indictment for posting a
    violent video clip? On this basis, the Italian government has  
launched a
    criminal proceeding against Google and raided their Milan office,
    according to the Italian Internet anti-censorship organization ALCEI
    (http://www.alcei.org/).

    ALCEI's report of the event is currently posted at the top of their
    Italian home page, and will soon appear on the English home page.  
Like
    the U.S.-where multiple court rulings and a clause of the DMCA  
protect
    ISPs from content sent by users-Italy has a law called Directive  
31/00
    that should absolve Google of responsibility for the video in  
question.
    In fact, Google had already taken action on the video (a shocking  
film
    made by teenagers documenting their own violence against a disabled
    person) removing it before the indictment.

    ALCEI reports "a widespread concern in Italian mainstream media (and
    politics) about violence involving `minors'." But one has to be very
    careful in laying blame for the social ills on videos. What if
    governments could order the removal of the videos that seem to  
pop up
    every week showing violence by police? Removing one violent film  
leaves a
    precedent that suppresses discussion and understanding of that  
violence.

    Meanwhile, popular culture is awash in images of fake violence.  
And we
    have to hold back from applying research about the effect of  
violent TV
    shows on children to violent online videos. The online videos  
must be
    sought out, and therefore are likely to provoke copy-cat actions  
only
    among people already interested in such awful things. All around,  
the
    indictment of Google is a step in the wrong direction.