youtube already blocked in part of Brazil

06/01/2007 at 20:06
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Many people are reporting that Brasil Telecom, the incumbent carrier for the south, center-west and part of north regions of Brazil is blocking access to youtube. It is hard to figure out what is going on. People who use ISPs in other networks report no blockage. It may or may not be related to problems people have been relating accessing google, gmail, google video and orkut today.

The interesting thing is that the justice from Sao Paulo Supreme Court that was reported as signing the injunction "shutting down" youtube denies having ordered the whole site down, only the video. Meawhile, Embratel (which is a large carrier) reportedly got an order from another judge telling it to shut the whole of youtube down (my translation):

"By this, registered on the record mentioned above, I inform you that by decision of the Fourth Chamber of the Sao Paulo State Justice Court, active effect was granted determining that you take, for indefinite time, one of the measures suggested on the record, below, with the goal of blocking the site www.youtube.com, from the co-defendant Youtube Inc, to Brazilian Internet users, informing, after that, of the measures taken.

1. Put a filter in the entry of the access request from a brazilian user, this way the request won't even get to the american computer.

2. Put a fiter in the entry of the response from the american website, this way the request won't even get to the brazilian computer.

I use this opportunity to present you votes of esteem and consideration.

Lincon Antônio de Moura - Judge"

It seems many carriers got this message, but only Brasil Telecom decided to act during the weekend. They could have fought this, since it causes clear damage to others, including themselves. But what really impresses me was that the judge that signed this note states that the Justice Court (TJ) granted something that the justice that supposedly signed it denied. What is going on? It is reported that this case runs under seal, so maybe we will never know.

The problem is that by closing access to youtube, they will cause more damage than good. Right now, Daniela Cicarelli is causing harm to me. Next time, I suggest she seek remedy against youtube on American Courts.

I don't think it is all bad, though. The problem is that judges, lawyers and lawmakers don't have much contact with the Internet. With things like this, I think that they will ending up understanding that what they are doing now is shutting down the city because a crime was committed in it and the mayor did nothing to stop other crimes like that to happen.

Links:
Brasileiros já relatam bloqueio do acesso ao YouTube (Portuguese)

Carta ofício traz detalhes do caso Cicarelli e YouTube (Portuguese)

Update: according to PC World (in Portuguese), the expert on whose testimony the justice decided granting the injunction, it was easy and free of cost for carriers to block the videos: it was done all the time against DDoS. But it is not. It is only possible to block the whole site, and that is what the justice ordered, thinking that he had ordered just the video down. Isn't it nice to see how the system works? Lots of lessons will hopefully be learned by a lot of people. It is time for people rebel and let their lawmakers know that they are not happy.