A sentence of symbolic character

In the trial over a video on YouTube that showed a handicapped youth being bullied, three Google executives have each been given six months' suspended sentences by a court in Milan. This ruling sets a dangerous precedent, writes Vittorio Zambardino in his blog, Scene Digitali: "For a number of reasons Google has become a troublemaker for its competitors. But the 'economic' antipathy should not lead to anti-Google administration of justice or anti-Google laws. Politics and the legal apparatus are seeking ways to bring the novelty of the Internet, which is first and foremost ... a social novelty back into familiar existing territory. But the web can't be forced to comply with existing norms. ... The digital society is a society of free people who are sent to prison when they commit crimes. But they should neither be censored ... nor forced to exercise self-censorship."

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