YouTube Blocked in Brazil

keeboo writes "The popular video sharing site YouTube is now blocked in Brazil due to a local court decision last Thursday. The site was ordered to block the uploaded sex videos of Brazilian media starlet Daniela Cicarelli and, although it complied, many users kept re-uploading it to the site. After the failure of YouTube to keep the video off of the site, the domain was blocked nationwide at a DNS level. Predictably, many Brazilians are annoyed and I've started to receive even SPAMs protesting on this blocking. From the article: 'The case now goes automatically to a three-member panel of judges who will decide whether to make the order permanent and whether to fine YouTube as much as US$119,000 (euro91,000) for each day the video was viewable, said Rubens Decousseau Tilkian.'"

Work around?

[swimin]

If it was really on blocked at the DNS level, wouldn't running your own DNS server work? If youtube IP blocks were blocked, then obviously something more complicated would be needed. What about a proxy?

Funny

[Quzak]

I find it damn funny that a foreign country seems to think that it has power over a US company. Seems to be happening alot lately too. Welcome all to topsy-turvey world! p.s. The video has be preserved for posterity and their refusal to accept this only makes people like me want to rub their noses in it.

Re:Funny

[Jason Straight]

Why not? Look at the example we set when we allow charges to be pressed in NY against Russian companies, RIAA vs AllofMP3.

Agreed

[Anonymous Coward]

People are so weird. While I am aware of the social and economic problems that sexual promiscuity can cause (disease, unwanted pregnancy, etc.), the fact remains that most of the living creatures on the planet have sex, including most humans. We are built for it and driven to it. It's just a simple fact of life. I really honestly don't understand why we think it is so horrible to capture it on film. If you don't like watching, then don't watch.

If the video was filmed without her (and his) consent, then I will say too bad. If you are in public, people can see you. If you don't want to be filmed, get a room.

Intranet Brazil

[michelcultivo]

And the project "Intranet Brazil" starts.

Re:The inevietable obligatory question.

[metlin]

Bah, it doesn't even have anything explicit (other than a very blurry image of a couple making out in skimpy clothes).

And almost all of it seems to have taken place at public places (i.e. beaches, parties etc.)

Isn't there a law (at least in the US) which states that you can't dispute against something that's been videotaped or photographed in a public place?

I mean, if you are going to do things out in public and a video of it appeared somewhere, is it necessarily wrong?

If you're that particular, get a damn room. Gee.

Publicity stunt?

[dangitman]

Brazilian media starlet Daniela Cicarelli

If she's merely a starlet, isn't it probable that this is all just a publicity stunt to help thrust herself into full-blown stardom?

As a brazillian (luckily ouside the country)

[cadu]

I can't stop reiterating how the brazillian government and laws work in such a way they're always focused
on proving that law works (specially if it involves a personality or something that could have a world impact, like a sex video of
a famous brazillian star (that everyone has already viewed anyway)) while the semi-analphabet President keeps getting re-elected,
while the parliament keeps voting (under winning majority, of course) their own promotions and their own extended vacations, while people are struggling to get jobs or grounded at their homes while criminals lurk freely in the city at anytime....

"Brasil", *please* change for the good of your people, everytime you guys go investigate the flamed nail of a governor's wife a person dies or gets murdered

thank you for showing again that our country (even with loads of raw materials, opportunity from external companies, massive workforce) is still not ready for raising the bar. thank you :(

An exercise in herding cats

[NorbrookC]

Is an apt metaphor for this. My goodness, a well-known (sort of) "celebrity" gets videotaped having sex and somehow the video makes itself public! Shocked, shocked I am, that this would happen! You'd think that with so many of these incidents in the past that they might become just a bit cautious. Really, how hard is it to follow the simple ideas of:

a) Don't videotape yourself having sex.

b) If you do, invest in a safe. A very good one.

c) Don't have sex in public. No, really, people have cellphones now to shoot footage of interesting things like that, besides the ever-popular video cameras.

d) If you break up with someone, and you've taped yourselves having sex, get the tapes before walking out!

Because once it's out, it's out. Court orders, forcing various sites to remove it just don't work. All it does is add to the publicity. I'd be willing to bet that within a week (if that) you'll see the video all over the binary groups, P2P networks, bittorrent, and various pr0n sites. Blocking one site is simply an attempt to bail out the Titanic with a bucket - nice try, but it won't work.

Is it even possible for YouTube to comply?

[Orange Crush]

They can blacklist her name and all the various permutations that crop up, employ measures similar to the copyright enforcement they're still working on by attempting to automatically recognize the particular video, and on and on. People will still find ways to put it right back. It's going to be an endless cat and mouse game. Can anyone else think of a way to realistically keep the video off YouTube without moderating the whole shooting match?

The real problem is that their are thousands, if not millions of people whose attention is fixated on this video and they'll keep trying to distribute it. The only way this is going to go away is when people lose interest . . . which isn't going to happen any time soon now that there's constant media coverage because she was foolish enough to file suit. Daniela's best bet is to get over herself and take advantage of the fact she's now a world-wide household name. Paris Hilton wasn't nearly as famous until her sex tapes and look at how much she's been raking in ever since. Welcome to celebrity, Daniela--your privacy is now forfeit.

Re:As a brazillian (luckily ouside the country)

[keeboo]

I think the real problem is that the court decided that it wasn't right to display that video, which was recorded in a public place.
I mean, c'mon, it's not like someone broke into her house to record some private sex.

The following actions were technically correct, but were made over a bad decision.

Re:Funny

[sumdumass]

Considering Google has offices in brazil, I doubt the requests were even imposed across country boundries. The demand was probbly placed on the brazilian offices and let go at that. In that case, google (youtube) would be just as bound anywere it had offices because the brazil entity would/could be screwed.

Re:Not so sure...

[rednaxel]

I'm in Brazil too, it works fine. But I'm making another backup of the video, just in case.

What's more frightening

[gerf]

Is that they so easily did this. There had to have been someone, somewhere, or something with a plan already in place to block specific Internet traffic from Brazil. It's not China fer Chrissakes!

Re:Funny

[JourneyExpertApe]

Oh, give it a rest. If The Pirate Bay (or any company) does business with Americans in America, then they may be prosecuted in America for any laws they break. They may also be prosecuted in Russia for any Russian laws they break. It's not as if America or any other country tried to enforce their own laws in foreign courts.

Re:Funny

[H0p313ss]

It's not as if America or any other country tried to enforce their own laws in foreign courts.

But America does have a new and interesting habit of kidnapping people they don't like and imprisoning them without trial or due process (gitmo, cia prisons in europe) or exporting them to "allies" (maher arar, syria) who's definitions of torture are even more wishy-washy than GWB's. The slippery slope is back... but it leads to fascism.

Re:Why, what, where, who, when

[cuby]

I see that you don't like to live/born in Brazil. That's your problem, but... Portuguese legal system is based in civil law, and inspired in the French and mainly in the German law systems. In Portugal, the problem isn't bad laws, it's bad enforcement. If after 200 years of independence your problems still exist because of Portugal... That's a very bad sign.

Re:The inevietable obligatory question. (WHY?)

[aussie_a]

When women do it they're called sluts when men do it they're called heroes. I doubt you're any exception, so well done for propagating this stigma against women.

Right. Brazil's problems are Portugal's fault.

[GreatBunzinni]

You see, the thing is Brazil has an extremely convoluted legal jungle. It inherited this Portuguese culture of a love for all things legally convoluted and impenetrable. When Portugal colonized Brazil, for quite sometime the ruling elite was made of pretty much a bunch of aristocratic good-for-nothing lawyers/slackers that graduated from Coimbra University, in Portugal. The basic characteristic of such people were a basic lack of common sense as well as a despise for work. Instead of working, they made laws. And more laws. I mean, Portugal is notorious for having discovered America and then having ended up owing a huge amount of money to the Brits, as foreign debt, losing all the gold they had amassed, right? From that point on, they were basically a fishing village (until they joined the E.U.)

You are trying to blame Portugal and the Portuguese culture for Brasil's underachievements and flaws, which is a bit silly and ignorant, to say the least. For example, you claim that Brazil's legal system is "extremely convoluted" due to being inherited from the Portuguese legal system. Yet, you fail to mention that Brazil is an independent nation since 1822, that the country adopted a government and legal system from states like Great Britain and the Austrian empire and since then it already lived through three revolutions, which once more changed the country's government and legal system. If that wasn't enough, when Brazil gain it's independence it was little more than a few colonies in the coast and only after that did the colonization of the region got up on it's feet and it was only since then that the country started forming. Counting with the help of 5 million immigrants from places like Japan, European and even from arab countries. Didn't they contributed to Brazil's current situation? Of course they do and obviously more than some portuguese colonist from the 17th and 18th century.

So, in the end what you are trying to do is dump Brazil's problems and underachievements onto a whole different nation which didn't took any part on Brazil's formation and growth and only shared a common origin. Moreover, you are trying to blame a whole different nation for Brazil's problems even though it was Brazil who opted to create the mess it's in and after it's fair share of fresh starts. When will Brazil assume the responsibility for it's own state?

If that wasn't enough, some brazilians have the habit of blaming Portugal for Brazil's problems even though Portugal doesn't suffer from any of them. For example, one frequent accusation is that Brazil's crime problem is due to Portugal. Yet, Portugal is one of the safest countries in the EU. Another is that Brazil's rampant corruption is due to Portugal. Yet, Portugal is one of the world's least corrupt countries (TI ranks Portugal at 26) while not only Brazil lags behind but it is also getting worse every year (TI ranks Brazil at 70, tied with Ghana and Senegal).

Another thing which I find pathetic is that there are brazilians who blame Portugal for Brazil's shortcomings with a blink of an eye and yet they don't seem to remember Portugal's alleged overbearing influence when they talk about Brazil's success stories. When is Portugal quoted on Brazil's space program or even in Curitiba's urban planning and transportation system example to the world? Heck, even Brazil's success in sports like football. Those are prime examples of Brazil's excellence. Where is Portugal's influence there?

Re:Unjustified slippery slope is weak.

[Fungii]

Maybe he disagrees with your government "torturing terrorist suspects".

You should too.

Re:Work around?

[turgid]

I pity those without a Scottish education. We learned about such things in our final year of primary school (age 11). And what's more, our elderly, sour-faced, authoritarian, right-wing puritanical female teacher managed not to rant too much about it being "not nice."

What is it with Western Protestant culture? Natural bodily functions are considered "bad."

Re:Work around?

[turgid]

Well, I've been living in England for 10 years, and from what I can see, the public education system here is atrocious, especially where social topics are concerned, and from what I hear of America, what they call "education" there you could probably get from children's TV and Marvel comics.

Mainland Europe seems to be a bit better.

We still let our superstitions rule, though. Parents are allowed to excuse their children from certain lessons because of their "beliefs." The UK has the worst teen pregnancy problem in Europe. We still have faith schools. We bring our children up in scientific illiteracy, religious bigotry, superstition, unable to read, write and do simple arithmetic, unable to think critically. For some reason we consider this state of affairs respectable and desirable.

Could someone please remove the politics from education policy?

As long as you wear the uniform, pray to god and don't ask to many awkward questions, you're OK.