Teenage School Student Fined for YouTube Karaoke Video

A 15-year-old student in a libel case on Friday after he posted a clip of his teacher on YouTube, ordering the youth to pay 800 euros ($1,085) in damages and a 90 euro fine.

Vesikko, who took the video of his teacher singing karaoke at a school party on April 30, admitted posting the video on the popular video-sharing site YouTube a day later with English subtitles under the headline "Karaoke of the mental hospital". He said he did it as a prank and had not intended to insult the teacher.

But the court said Vesikko's actions "falsified facts" — about the institution and the teacher's mental state — and caused her to suffer anxiety, depression and insomnia. The video was watched more than 600 times before Vesikko took it off Google Inc.'s YouTube on May 7 on the orders of the principal of the school, near Lieksa, 330 miles from Helsinki.

The teacher took the boy to court and asked for 2,000 euros in damages.

This is the first time a Finnish court has found against someone based on a video clip published on the Internet.

The court said it had ordered reduced damages because the defendant was under 18 years of age and he had removed the clip from the Internet within two weeks at the request of the school's headmaster.