Brazil prosecutors aim to sue Google

Sao Paulo prosecutor's office alleges that several pages on Orkut have been used for criminal activity.

The story "Brazil prosecutors aim to sue Google" published August 23, 2006 at 4:39 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Leria]

Waste of Time

This is a total waste of time on the part of the Brazil prosecutor's office. Sure, Orkut COULD be used or is being used by pedophiles who are trading child pornography.
The question becomes, who are they hurting by doing this? My answer as a pedophile and a expert in true forcible child sexual abuse and rape: No one.
The people who peruse child pornography are LESS likely to forcibly sexually abuse children than those who are attracted to children and DON'T look at child pornography (this coming straight from the NIH in America).

Give up with trying to stop child pornography, it is going to be around FOREVER. Give up on trying to stop child sexual abuse and children having sex with adults, it is going to be around forever.
Do go after the people who FORCE children into sexual situations or actions, and put them in jail for long period or get them the mental help they need, not to realize that their pedophilia is wrong, but to realize that forcing people into sexual situations is wrong.

[chuck_whealton]

I hope they nail 'em to the wall

If Google is not helping authorities stop people who are using their service for crime and child pornography, then in my opinion, they're aiding crime and child pornography.

If this is found to be the case, I hope Brazil and every other country they refuse to help nails them to the wall. If they're run out of business (highly unlikely), then I have no more of a problem with that than I would any other company who blatently aids criminal activity.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com

[myanderson]

opinions...

Your opinion is valid; however, the simple fact is that Google is only liable to moderate the content of the social networks, as I'm sure they are. The fact of the matter is that the Brazilian prosecutors are simply going after Google for monetary gain. They know that they will fail in any attempts to gain access to the servers in the US and they have no judicial right, morally, to force Google to disolve it's Brazilian division. And, nevertheless, to say that Google did support criminal activity and child pornography is wrong! They don't support that in any way. You need to understand fully that they have an obligation to protect the rights and privacy of you and I, the every day users. As soon as Pandora's Box is opened and user information is compromised by sovereign intervention, you can expect Big Brother to be knocking on the door soon enough. It's not just about criminial activity or child pornography. The fact is, the minute they are clued to illegal activity or such, they will take the necessary actions and, I'm sure, incorporate preventative measures for future offenses. They have whole divisions dedicated to such measures...probably some located in the Brazil office that the Brazilian Gov't is trying to disolve. Hmm, smell the irony?

Cooter(tm) @ myelsrobert.blogspot.com

[myanderson]

Jurisdiction will prevail...

Unfortunately, no matter how hard the Brazilian prosecutors try, there is nothing they can do. If I run a social network from my home in Nevada and prosecutors from Argentina tried to go after me, they'd lose, because the physical servers are located in the States and they have no right or power to force my hand when trying to get to whatever is on the servers. On the same note, the US government has yet to pass any laws requiring companies such as Google or Yahoo or Myspace to hand over user information, so even if they brought their case to the US, they would still be met with many other road blocks. -Cooter(tm)