Italian Judge Oscar Magi, seen here in a Nov. 4, 2009 file photo (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Three Google executives were convicted for invasion of privacy and sentenced in Italy yesterday to a term of six months in prison. Their crime was allowing a YouTube user-created video of some students bullying a classmate with Down’s syndrome. It all started in 2006, when the clip was posted, a Reuters article said. According to an Associated Press report, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond and retired Chief Financial Officer George Reyes were convicted (even though they weren’t there) and given a suspended sentence. Google said it’ll appeal the decision.

So what did they do wrong? They neither created nor uploaded the video. Google took the video down after it was contacted by authorities. The fact that these executives are being held responsible is what’s worrying so many about this case. In the United States, the AP story explains, the Communications Decency Act says that Internet companies aren’t liable for stuff posted by people who are using the service. But in Europe, those rules don’t apply. And many believe that this ruling by Judge Oscar Magi could lead to other lawsuits and force Internet companies to police their content. Some, as a story I heard on NPR this morning said, believe that it could mean the end of user-generated content on sites. YouTube receives 20 hours of video every minute. Google employees don’t have time to go through all of that before it can go live.

And that’s just YouTube. What about blog posts on Blogger? Will Yahoo have to police Flickr images? What about stuff people upload to Facebook? Many companies would be affected by this ruling, if it stands.

But don’t freak out yet. As Tom Krazit of CNET wrote, it’s possible that this case could be a single instance that shows just how current laws have to go to meet with the realities of Internet usage. I tend to agree, but as we know, legislative bodies move far more slowly than technological trends. And it’s highly possible that different countries will choose to disagree with others, which will lead to differing levels of service for people in those countries.