Both sides claimed victory Monday after a Rome judge took a minimalist view of the responsibilities of telecom carriers for stamping out online piracy in a court battle pitting copyright defenders against Internet distributors and privacy interests.

The Milan judge who convicted three Google executives for allowing the posting of a video showing the bullying of an autistic teenager has received hundreds of threatening and insulting messages via Facebook since the verdict was first announced on Feb. 24.

Three Google executives were handed suspended six month prison sentences by a Milan court on Wednesday for privacy law violations relating to a video posted on Google Video showing the bullying of a handicapped boy.

New rules to be introduced by government decree will require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web, opposition lawmakers have warned.

An Italian consumers association is set to mount a class-action lawsuit to obtain compensation for customers who buy PCs with preinstalled Microsoft software but who prefer not to use the Windows OS, the association's president announced Tuesday.

The announcement at the beginning of the month that the government was postponing a Euros 800 million (US$1.2 billion) investment in modernizing Italy's broadband infrastructure has provoked indignation among government critics and embarrassment among ministers.

A Google engineer appeared in court in Milan Tuesday to defend the company's conduct in connection with posting a video showing the bullying of a disabled teenager.

An Italian prosecutor has accused Google of violating Italian and European regulations in the way it handles its e-mail communications, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Monday.