[IP] Google blamed for violent video in Italy
Begin forwarded message:
From: Andy Oram <andyo@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 28, 2006 1:18:53 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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.
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