April 11, 2008 -
Free expression does not seem to be an especially important concept in Brazil these days.The nation which banned Counter-strike and Everquest in January has now blocked sales of Rockstar's T-rated Bully. As reported by the Associated Press:
Judge Flavio Rabello prohibited the game from being imported, distributed, sold or promoted on Web sites or in stores in Latin America's largest nation, said Rio Grande do Sul state prosecutor Alcindo Bastos. Companies have 30 days to comply with the judge's order.
"The aggravating factor is that everything in the game takes place inside a school," Bastos said. "That is not acceptable."
There are also reports that a judge has issued an order to block Brazilians from accessing blogs hosted by Wordpress.com. Of this news, the Brazilian blog Terramel writes:
Is Brazil the new China?
...The order to block wordpress.com was sent to Abranet who sent it to all associated ISPs. In an interview, Eduardo Parajo, Abranet’s president said: “We must not discuss a court order, we must obey it. Since it’s not possible to block only the [particular] blog’s address, all the access to any wordpress.com sites will be forbidden in Brazil”.
Now lets think a little about it… They didn’t said what is the blog and the reason to block it.. Is there really a blog and reason? Or may it be just an excuse to shut up bloggers, who are seen as a threat by the brazilian government, the brazilian justice and the brazilian tradicional media? There are millions of brazilian bloggers speaking about the corruption in the our government and in the brazilian court.
Via: Techdirt
Comments
I mean, when I'm signed it, it is a Wordpress account, isn't it? It's a little confusing to me, but I know WordPress applies somehow. I know it shows up when the GP main site is down.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Check out the Wikileaks incident in the united states then, not only in Brazil.
Have fun.
Awaiting a victory email from him along the lines of "Dennis has been banned in Brazil, hooah!"
I'm afraid I do not follow. What does that statement have to do with anything mentioned? Is shutting down blogs a necessity to arm against?
Anyway, a country that has the skimpiest beach wear, and a gianormous nekkid street festival.. and I also believes hosts world orgasm day? (I could be wrong there)... They ban speaking? Very different culture from us here, where we'd rather have severed heads then sex or gay kissing.
You're also forgetting Brazil is home to one of the largest juvenile prostitution ring in the world...
-Sighs.- What's wrong with all the countries suffering around the USA...? -Gasps at her anti-americanism!-
Many would argue that yes, shutting down blogs enmass is a necessity to arm against. Particularly in cases like this where it seems that the government is banning speech to keep people from speaking out against its corruption.
Uh. Brazil is quite a ways away from the US.
Laugh, it's friday!
And... if it's land-accessible, it ain't far enough.
Like Grey17 said.
It sets the precedent for further restrictions. In addition to that, there is an observable trend around the world and even in the US to criminalize and/or restrict speech. This is nothing new of course, and neither is the natural response to a tyrannical action.
When you have only a few monolithic corporations intertwined with the government feeding you their particular brand of bullshit, the need for independent press is made even more evident. It provides a choice. That's why you see such a massive popularity in indie news and a decline in corporate news today.
To be honest, I think the state of the US, despite contrast to China or now Brazil I guess, merits a peaceful revolution and logical return to strict constitutional adherence.
And as they say.. those that make peaceful revolutions impossible, make violent revolutions inevitable.
/shrug
And now I'm flagged by the NSA.. =P
I thought the Aussies got it bad...
And like I said before, people here in Brazil really dont know the meaning of freedom... They think freedom is carnival, sex, porns... They prefer the "bread and circensis" that the government and the media give them.. They really dont care about freedom of speech, about books... the brazilian government now uses lots of excuses to take away our freedom and the people applaude... Recently in the city of Sao Paulo, I guess, 4 libraries where shut down. The government said it was closed because noone was reading...
Most brazilians are afraid of books, afraid of new stuffs, afraid to use their brain... The government do a lot of shit and uses lame excuses like "protecting the children", but do you know Xuxa? Xuxa is woman who hosted televisions shows for children in Brazil... She is also known here by the nickname: "Queen of the Little Children"... But if you look at her past, you'll now that when she was about 20 years old, she made a brazilian movie when she had sex with a 10 year old boy... Search for it... the name is "Amor, estranho amor". After she got fame doing children television shows, she went to the court to try to get that movie banned and to take away all of her pictures she had on Playboy and other magazines... She is still known as "Queen of the Little Children", she is still RICH and FAMOUS, mothers still buy her toys and music for children, and brazilians dont even remember what about that movie or about the playboys...
Shame ;//////
Brazil is a pathetic excuse for a country, they've got so, so many problems and they decide to ban certain video games?
There's something not right about that.
Self-reliance and self-defense are highly undesirable for a Police State or Nanny State, they have to be removed.
As for the wordpress... I really wanted to know the motivation behind it. We had youtube blocked for a few days once, because of a video scandal of a certain actress called Daniela Cicarelli, who was having sex on a beach in Spain, so another piece of crap judge issued an order to ISPs to remove acess to the video at any cost. It was terrible P.R. for her, and it didn't hold for long, but bloggers seem more vulnerable.
In the end, any and all nations have hypocrites in goverment and judiciary institutions, dealing with non-issues and trying to censor everything and their mom, instead of doing SOMETHING WORTH DOING. It's a world-wide problem. I agree with Terramel. It's just like Rome, but we have damn carnival and stupid, empty skull soccer as circus, and as for the bread... well, government pays monthly some crap called "Bolsa Família", a help fund for the empoverished to do NOTHING, just sit their asses and buy booze and drugs. It's essentially "buy the voters".
I hate this country, and I REALLY want out.
PS: My apologies for the rant, but I really got angry with that one.
/sarcasm.
and while you are at it, you should ban google and the internetz cause they let your people learn about the world around them and what is happening in their own country... like the banning of all wordpress.com websites....
Dang, this is exactly what banning games leads to... banning of blogs... I wonder how long till newspapers and school books are also banned...
Here's hoping/praying that the crazy power judges have in Brazil is dealt with soon.
I know the game relation to this story is the banning of Bully, but next to the banning of over a million blogs, it kind of doesn't look so bad. Still pretty stupid itself though.
Everyone know severed heads cause teen pregnancy
But severed heads aren't a waste of time like teen pregnancy, smack, or video games.
Uh... no, it doesn't. But hey, who can be expected to actually experience the game prior to a banning?
Personally, I hate that statement. The reason why we Chinese can't buy Western video games is no one gives a damn about video games, they all go after the big greasy online games. I lost count about how many online games we have that are from Korean, and tons of copy-cat money grabbers. There is few companies or publishers that still making single-player games, or import western games. Beside, if a game in US is sold for $50~60, we will have the same thing for 50~70 Yuan (chinese currency), but USD to Yuan is 1:7, if Western game companies want to make the same profit in China, each video games have to sell for 200~300+ Yuan (not including importing fees and tax). Will you buy a game that is worth this much? I doubt it.
The thing I hate is the Western politicians so call "Freedom & Justice". Just see how those pig politicians use medias (*cough Fox *cough CNN) to toy with the public about Chinese Olympics.
And this is strange, seeing that I have recently ran across a few Brazilian blogs a few days ago. On Blogger, though, not Wordpress. Would they ban Blogger as well?
I do do wonder which country will go to hell first; United States, England, Brazil, Germany, or China? I ask this because I wonder when people will get fed up with this crap their own countries are try to pull and do something about it. Somebody needs to draw the line in the sand.