Brazil: Google and its legal trouble

While the IP community is still digesting the Google AdWords ruling, one always wonder about the Internet Service Provider active or passive role (see case comments by our cousin IPKat).

In the same vein, I found this news in today's newspaper. A Brazilian court in the northern state of Rondonia fined Google for not blocking pages of dirty jokes on its social networking site Orkut. In an appeal to the High Court (Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ)), Google Brazil argued that the company did not have the technical means or employees needed to police Orkut. The STJ observed that Google already implements such control on its pages in China.

The story began when the prosecutor brought civil action in defence of teenagers who were allegedly offended by virtual communities on Orkut. The communities questioned were: 'Pimenta Fofocas' (spicy gossip) and 'Pimenta Fofocas o Return' (spicy gossip return).

The High Court of Justice (STJ) reported that Google was ordered to pay a fine of approx. $2.800 for each day that the contents remain available.

I can observe that in this particular case, the court saw the ‘active’ role of Google.