Four Google executive are under threat facing imprisonment that could be in the range of six months to one year, in a lawsuit brought on by Milan, Italy on the charges of privacy violations. The whole mess began when Google posted a video on Google Video depicting the harassment of a physically disabled boy. As per the court case, the prosecutors representing the city of Milan are also seeking $452,000 in moral and material damages.

Google Executives, David Drummond (Chief Legal Officer), Peter Fleischer (Global Privacy Counselor)George De Los Reyes (Former Chief Financial Officer) are the ones who are under extreme scrutiny by Italian judiciary, where the prosecutors, Alfredo Robledo and Francesco Caiani have been repeatedly requesting the presiding Judge, Oscar Magi to hand over prison time of one year for all these three Google executives and a six month prison term for Arvind Desikan (Ex-Chief, Google Video Europe). All these individuals have been charged with defamation and violation of the privacy law.

According to the prosecutors,

“It wouldn’t have taken much to provide a responsible service and protect privacy. The problem is to find the right balance between the right to enterprise and the protection of individual rights that are guaranteed by the constitution. Every time someone clicks on a video, Google earns money. That’s an economic fact.”

As per the complaint the video in question was uploaded and live on the web via Google Video from Sept. 8 to Nov. 7, 2006 and was categorized in the “Fun Videos” section where it soared to the no. 26 positions with 5,500 total views. The video was only taken down by Google, after the local press carried out a huge campaign and the after an appeal was made by Italy’s postal police.

Via Computer World.