[WikiEN-l] Italian privacy laws and Google

[Bod Notbod]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Carcharoth <carcharothwp at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Does this case have implications for Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation?
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8533695.stm
>
> Google employees were convicted by a court for allowing a video of a
> teenager with Down's Syndrome being bullied to be posted online. It
> seems most of the internet is up in arms about this, as it shifts the
> location where liability can be placed, though I doubt anything like
> this would ever appear in the USA.

It does indeed pose a big question to anyone that uploads video
showing persons who haven't signed a form giving consent for, I
suppose, "broadcast".

Similarly there's a bill going through the British Parliament at the
moment saying that you can't photograph people in public places. So if
I wanted to take a picture of a statue and happen to catch someone
walking past in the frame I would be liable.

One hopes that we British will be shown to be such other legislatory
idiots that nobody will take it seriously.

Mr Godwin has already said he wouldn't fly over here to defend
Wikimedia in a libel case because it would be "too risky". We are set
to become an utter laughing stock.