Top Google Executive in Brazil Faces Arrest Over Video

Reuters/New York Times, 9/25/2012

An elections court in Brazil has ordered the arrest of Google’s most senior executive in the country after the company failed to take down YouTube videos attacking a local mayoral candidate.

Google is appealing the order, which comes after a similar decision by another Brazilian elections judge. In that case, a judge found a different senior executive responsible for violating local election law. That decision was overturned last week.

The legal challenges underline broader questions about Google’s responsibility for content uploaded by third parties to its Web sites.

Read more…

Scandal! In Brazil, blogs with embedded Youtube videos are charged monthly fees

Ricardo Geromel – Forbes, 03/11/2012

In 2011 alone, ECAD, Brazil’s Central Bureau of Collection and Distribution, claims to have distributed R$ 2.6 million (US$ 1.48 mi) from Digital Media royalties, "benefiting over 21,000 composers, performers, musicians, publishers and phonographic producers." (Forbes)

Huge fuzz in Brazil’s blogosphere! Brazilian Performance Rights Agency ECAD, which stands for Brazil’s Central Bureau of Collection and Distribution, has sent messages to some Brazilian bloggers warning that they should pay copyright fees for embedding YouTube videos on their blogs or websites.

It takes seconds to start a blog with WordPress or Tumblr. Embedding a Youtube video onto a web page is as easy as cutting and pasting. A ten years old kid can effortlessly do it. In Brazil, the bloggers may be charged  $200 monthly fee for embedding Youtube videos, even if Youtube Brasil already pays copyright fees.

Sounds like nonsense!?  Astonishingly, according to absurd copyright laws in Brazil, the Central Bureau of Collection and Distribution is surprisingly correct in doing so.

Read more…