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Phone company blocks YouTube in Brazil
2007-01-08
YouTube is being blocked by Brazil's second-largest fixed-line telephone operator in response to a judicial order banning a steamy video of supermodel Daniela Cicarelli, the telephone company said Monday. Brasil Telecom SA said it prohibited access to YouTube across a wide swath of Latin America's most populous country late Friday after receiving the order. The widely viewed video shows Cicarelli and Brazilian banker Renato Malzoni in intimate scenes along a beach near the Spanish city of Cadiz. It became even more popular over the weekend after the Brazil ban made headlines worldwide and users posted it to a slew of other Web sites. A judge last week ordered YouTube to prevent the video from being seen by Brazilians. The judge also said fixed-line operators that provide the gateway to Internet providers must take part in the ban until YouTube can prove that the clip cannot be accessed in Brazil on its site. YouTube, which said last Friday that it took down links to the video because they violated terms of use, declined comment on the latest development. On Monday, YouTube was unavailable in Brasil Telecom territories from the capital of Brasilia to the Amazon, though it still worked in heavily populated Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where Internet use is heaviest. Sao Paulo and Rio are served by No. 1 fixed-line operator Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes SA, which did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment on whether it was among the companies receiving orders from the judge. Sao Paulo state Supreme Court Justice Enio Santarelli Zuliani did not disclose the names of the telecommunications companies because many case details are sealed, his press office said. Zuliani's order is temporary and will automatically be reviewed by a three-member judicial panel, though it's not known how long the YouTube ban would last. Cicarelli and Malzoni sued YouTube in September and won an injunction for the removal of the video, but Zuliani expanded his order and included the telecommunications companies last week after the clip continued to appear periodically, the court's press office said. Cicarelli, one of the country's best-known models, hosts a show on Brazilian MTV and was previously engaged to soccer great Ronaldo, who plays for Spain's famous Real Madrid team. Two Brazilian sites that ran the video complied with the original order, but Malzoni went back to court after it kept appearing on YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc.
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