In the second hit of a one-two punch in Europe, an Italian court handed out guilty verdicts on Wednesday for three of four Google executives charged a case concerning a YouTube video posted of a boy with Down's Syndrome.

The judge in the case, Oscar Magi, gave three current and former Google executives suspended six-month jail sentences and a fourth was found not guilty, according to The Associated Press. The three sentences were for violation of privacy, but the judge found the three not guilty of defamation charges.

The findings come just one day after the European Union opened an antitrust investigation concerning Google search. There was a day when Google was an exciting newcomer to the technology landscape, but the company now is clearly a powerful force has governments as well as competitors concerned.

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the YouTube case. In the past, it's held the case up as important because it could affect the extent to which Internet intermediaries are responsible for content published by third parties on their sites, calling it a direct attack on a free, open Internet" in one statement and adding that it's "akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post" in another statement.

Concerning the antitrust investigation, Google said on Tuesday, "We are confident that our business operates in the interests of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law."

The Italian case was filed in 2008 after the 2006 publication on YouTube of a cell phone video of students taunting a teenager with Down's Syndrome. Google removed the video and cooperated with authorities on investigating the video.

Charged in the case are David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer; Peter Fleischer, Google's chief privacy counsel; George Reyes, Google's former chief financial officer; and a Google employee that the search giant declined to identify. It wasn't immediately clear who was found guilty of the privacy invasion.

Officials in Massachusetts believe there's been another deadly case of cyberbullying in the apparent suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley, Mass.

Prince moved last year to the area from Ireland. While making the transition to a new town and a new country, Prince, officials believe, became the target of intense cyber-bullying, which may have contributed to her apparent suicide.

Prince was found dead in her South Hadley home on January 14, just days before a big school dance.

Read more of "Officials: Suicidal teen was cyberbullied" at CBSNews.com.

An Italian decree that would require the vetting of videos with sexual or violent content could take effect as soon as February 4, according to reports.

The government decree, which affects sites such as Google's YouTube, would also require sites that regularly upload videos to obtain a license to operate in Italy, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Companies and organizations, including Google, telecommunications providers, and press watchdog groups, are seeking changes in the proposed decree. They assert that it would hurt freedom of expression and be extremely difficult to enforce and monitor.

The draft decree "poses yet another threat to freedom of expression in Italy," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement this week.

Marco Pancini, European senior policy counsel of Google Italia who testified this week before an Italian parliamentary committee, said Friday that he expects that the proposal will undergo changes and be delayed.

"We are concerned over the fact that [companies], like YouTube, that simply make content available to the general public, are being bundled together with traditional television networks that actually manage content," Pancini told the newspaper La Stampa, according to Time. "It amounts to destroying the entire Internet system."

Thursday's deadline created a sea of paperwork for FCC officials who are already scrambling to complete a massive report detailing plans for a national broadband policy due to Congress in March. (The deadline has been pushed back from mid-February.)

The U.S. Department of Justice has closed its investigation of cell phone text message pricing without any action taken against wireless operators, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Justice Department launched its investigation into text message pricing in September 2008, after Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) asked the agency to look into why wireless operators had doubled text-messaging rates from 10 cents per message to 20 cents per message sent and received. Kohl said he was concerned that the industry had colluded to increase rates at roughly the same time.

Wireless companies denied that they had colluded to set rates. And industry executives pointed out that consumers were actually paying less per text message because of plans that offered bundled packages or packages wit unlimited text messages.

But consumer groups such as Consumers Union say these plans, which cost anywhere from $5 to $20 a month, force customers to subscribe to more expensive plans. Consumer groups also argue that the cost charged for texting far outstrips the cost to network operators.

Even though the Justice Department has closed the books on this investigation, other government agencies are still investigating the wireless industry over other potential competitive issues. For example, the Federal Communications Commission is looking at competition in the wireless market, including exclusive handset deals and early-termination fees.