One of the Deputy General Counsels at Google posted about the case of three of their employees being found criminally liable by an Italian court for what a third party posted to Google-owned YouTube. British tech publication The Register posted more in the matter.
Who is liable for what goes online? Google fears that this would kill the participatory web as it would put platform providers in the unwanted role of censor. The implications for public access computing at libraries is not touched upon yet but the realm of imagination leads to scary destinations.
Nutters
If they are repsonsible, then so are the phone/cable companies for allowing it to be transmitted. This has never been allowed under normal laws in any country, but then this is Italy of course.