I’m not sure if I missed some development while I was away for a few days or this is just a delayed response on Google’s part, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Google will begin an appeal as soon as January of a conviction by an Italian court of two managers and a former executive for violating privacy laws, said Peter Fleischer, the company’s global privacy counsel and a defendant in the case.
The three were convicted in February by a Milan court on charges related to a clip uploaded to Google Video in 2006 by a group of Turin school students, who filmed themselves bullying an autistic classmate. Milan Judge Oscar Magi ruled that Fleischer; David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president of corporate development; and a former chief financial officer, were guilty of privacy violations. They were sentenced to six-month terms, which were suspended.
I covered the case on this blog previously, and am really curious as to why an appeal would be filed now. Anyone have additional information that would explain this?