Google Fined For Not Blocking Dirty Jokes

from the there-once-was-a-man-from-nantucket dept

sinsi was the first of a few of you to send in the news that Google has been fined by a Brazilian court for not blocking some dirty jokes on its Orkut social network (which, for reasons no one has explained, is only popular in Brazil). This isn't the first time that Google has run into legal trouble over Orkut -- though it appears in every case that the Brazilian courts seem to blame Google for any action done by its users. Have they no safe harbors in Brazil? Do courts really not understand why it makes no sense to blame the service provider for actions of their users? Amusingly, the court even cited the fact that Google censors content in China as a reason for why it could do so in Brazil -- but left out Google's recent decision to pull out of China entirely, rather than continue to filter results.
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Filed Under: brazil, censorship, dirty jokes, fines, orkut
Companies: google


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  1. icon
    Nastybutler77 (profile), 24 Mar 2010 @ 11:35am

    Brazil's new slogan

    "Come to Brazil, where we make technology boring and oppressive."

    That should draw in the tech companies.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    :), 24 Mar 2010 @ 11:43am

    Brazil have limitations to copyright but that is the extent of it as far as I know, many south american countries have some very limited limits on copyright, the good news is that they can't afford to enforce, the bad is that nobody cares if laws are passed or not and forget that some day those laws will be enforced.

    funny note: On boingo boingo Xeni Jardim was just complaining about a supposedly rip off of some artist that did some cut outs from maps(not a original idea).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    :), 24 Mar 2010 @ 11:49am

    Nissan ad in Brazil.

    http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/23/did-nissan-or-their.html

    Funny how people react to things.
    She is concerned that some ad agency from Brazil copied the idea from another artist that she knows and goes on to insinuate that this is not cool, and many people point out the errors of her ways.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2010 @ 11:49am

    Techdirt - thank you for allowing anonymous comments and not blocking jokes about TAM's mom.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 24 Mar 2010 @ 12:17pm

    Re:

    Yeah like ...

    "Dude go back to your mommy, she lives under that bridge over there."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2010 @ 12:22pm

    Re:

    Speaking of TAM...where has he been? Does he not post under that name any more? I haven't seen him in a few weeks.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2010 @ 3:23pm

    Re:

    I'm not sure what copyrights have to do with filtering dirty jokes. Unless you're saying that somebody claims to hold a copyright on the concept of the dirty joke, and wants to sue/block other people from making or posting them.

    Hmm...

    *runs to patent office*

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    KnownHuman (profile), 24 Mar 2010 @ 4:05pm

    Orkut's Popularity in Brazil

    If memory serves me correctly, Orkut was released (in beta, of course) right around the same time as Gmail. The late spring of 2004. Both setups were moderately closed, requiring an invite, but users were given the ability to invite new users.

    If you remember back, that was right around the same time that MySpace was gaining in popularity amongst teens and twenty-somethings in the United States. MySpace gained enough users to be self-sustaining in America, while the closed nature of Orkut became popular with Brazilian (and Indian) users.

    As MySpace grew in importance in America, the number of active American users at Orkut atrophied. The more that left, the quicker the atrophy.

    As a user who signed up for both services right around the same time, it was an interesting transition to watch.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Brandon (profile), 25 Mar 2010 @ 8:31am

    Re: Orkut\'s Popularity in Brazil

    I've noticed this myself. Its interesting how popular Orkut got in places like Brazil but MySpace and FaceBook exploded in the US and Europe. I believe that other services (can't remember their names) also had the same type country-specific growth. It'd be nice to see an analysis on this.

    I wonder why, maybe the way Orkut works seems more natural to Brazil than Facebook or Myspace.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    antonnette, 23 Nov 2011 @ 3:39pm

    Hey

    link to this | view in thread ]


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