Can Someone Please Tell This Italian Judge What YouTube Is?

Sometimes I despair of Europe, even though I'm proud of what can be achieved here. But really, guys, can we get it together? At the same time the European Union is investigating a pretty flimsy anti-trust complaint against Google, it's conspiciously ignoring a case in Italy where three Google executives have been found guilty on a ridiculous charge. Here is the bizarre story. An Italian court yesterday convicted three (ex) Google executives in a trial over a video showing a teenager being bullied. The Google Italy employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video of bullying of a teenager with Down's Syndrome to be posted on YouTube. Judge Oscar Magi (pictured) absolved the three of defamation but convicted them of privacy violations. The three executives have received a suspended six-month sentence, while a fourth defendant was acquitted. Google has responded in a justifiably vociferous blog post calling this a "serious threat to the web in Italy". Frankly they are right.