Brazil Unbans YouTube, But Steamy Video Is Still Off-Limits

São Paulo judge Ênio Santarelli Zuliani issued a statement today asking Brazilian Internet Service Providers to stop blocking access to the entire video sharing service YouTube.

Zuliani nonetheless said ISPs should continue to do everything possible to block the video of Daniela Cicarelli, soccer star Ronaldo's former wife, in steamy scenes with her boyfriend.

In his order the judge states that "all measures should be taken in order to block the access to the video of the couple's film, as long as this is possible, technically, without blocking the whole site."

A decision by a São Paulo court on 4 January ordering Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to the US video sharing service YouTube was condemned as "disproportionate" by Reporters Without Borders, which called for access to YouTube to be restored in Brazil.

The court issued its order in response to a petition filed by two Brazilians, who were shown in a steamy video posted on the site.

"While it is essential that judges ensure that the right to privacy is respected, blocking access to this site, which agreed to withdraw the offending video, is a radical and inappropriate measure and one that it is anyway ineffective," Reporters Without Borders said.

"We find it hard to understand how a single video, the banning of which did not seem to be a matter of urgency, was able to justify the closure of a website used by tens of thousands of Brazilians every day," the press freedom organization added.

The court's order has already been implemented by one of Brazil's biggest ISPs, Brasil Telecom, which blocked the site's domain name. Another company, Embratel Participações, told Reuters it was looking at ways to block access to YouTube. The Spanish company Telefonica, which also operates in Brazil, announced that it would comply with the order.

The video, which was posted on YouTube by several Internet users, showed model Daniella Cicarelli, the former wife of soccer star Ronaldo, together with her boyfriend, Renato Malzoni Filho, on a Spanish beach. They sued YouTube, demanding US$ 116,000 in damages for each day the video remained on the website.

The court ban remains in effect even though YouTube, which was recently bought by Google, has since removed the video. People keep posting the video while YouTube keeps deleting it. The video meanwhile remains accessible on many other websites to which access has not been blocked in Brazil, like this one:

{mgmediabot}images/stories/video/cicarelli.flv|false|400|300{/mgmediabot}

Tags:

You May Also Like

After Disappointing 2005, Brazil’s Textile Industry Hopes for Lower Interests

The Brazilian textile and clothing industry chalked up a disappointing performance in 2005 but ...

Football Land

The new coach for the national soccer team is Wanderley Luxemburgo da Silva, 46. ...

The Greatest

  This article is in commemoration of Brazil’s 500th anniversary. (Brazil’s actual birthday date ...

BEST: Brazil’s Big Push to Draw Overseas Investment

The Brazilian government and private sector have endeavored to disseminate and ameliorate the image ...

Army Will Protect Arab Summiteers in Brazil

In the second week of May, the capital of Brazil will become a meeting ...

Brazil to Create 2000 Direct Jobs Building Submarines

The Navy of Brazil is celebrating the signing of a cooperation agreement between Brazil ...

A peasant from Petrolina, Pernambuco, in the Brazilian Northeast

The US-Brazil Accord on Ethanol Is Good for GDP But Very Bad for Rural Poor

During Bush’s visit to Brazil thousands of poor, rural members of the international Via ...

Picasso, Matisse, Dali and Monet Stolen at Gunpoint in Brazil

Four armed men entered the Chácara do Céu Museum, in the Santa Teresa district ...

People from Guapiruvu, in São Paulo, Brazil, get together

A Small Community in Brazil Is Giving Sustainable Development a Good Name

Antônio Carlos "Carlinhos" de Lara is serving time on parole for poaching palm hearts ...

Brazil’s Ricupero Retires from Unctad

The secretary general at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), the ...