Brazil ban on Counter-Strike, EverQuest goes into effect

by Ross Miller { Jan 22nd 2008 at 2:30PM }

A ban on the sale of Counter-Strike and EverQuest in Brazil has gone into effect. According to AFP, the ban was ordered by federal court in October 2007 but is just now being imposed. Said judge Carlos Alberto Simoes, the titles encouraged "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security." (Just so you're clear: EverQuest is an attack on democracy, but censorship isn't.)

Of course, the ban is just on the sale of the two games. Each title is about nine years old, with their latest respective sequels (EverQuest 2 and CS: Source) released in 2004 - not exactly the most timely censorship. By that timeframe, World of Warcraft has about five years left before Brazil drops the banhammer. Let's hope Blizzard can get out Wrath of the Lich King before 2014.

[Via CVG; thanks, Vitor]

Tags: brazil, counter-strike, everquest

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shotgun Steve @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:35PM

I can see how they might ban retail sale, but how exactly do you ban online transactions (Steam)?

NATO_Duke @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:35PM

It’s always nice to see other countries dabbling in useless laws. Makes you feel part of the club.

LiK @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:39PM

funny, both games were made in the US too. i'll miss my Brazilian buddies in CS.

BPM4:Guns of the Idiots @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:42PM

Apparently, from what I read, the original ban was to not only cease the sales of both games, but also the use of them (meaning if you already owned it, you could no longer play it).
However, they quickly backed off of that, and only prevented the sale of them.

Not sure how it affects the sequels, though...

Lone Starr @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:44PM

"Subversion of public order" is right. The elves need to be stopped. I've been saying it for years: Keebler was just the beginning.

Geraldo Figueras @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:44PM

LiK, you don't have to worry about that. Here in Brazil, no one actually buy a game. Unless I'm unaware that Mininova is a store nowadays.

Jerk Face @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:11PM

I was about to comment on that. Isn't piracy, like, kind of what people DO in South America as far as games go? I thought that was kind of their 'angle.'

Victor @ Jan 22nd 2008 9:27PM

dude
i'm a brazilian, and i'm not exaclty proud to say all my wii, ps2, psone, and ds games are downloaded from the internet. games here have an abusive price, and these bans are just made from stupid politicians to fool our dumb population (which is really dumb since the government doesn't give them proper education).

Slaziman @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:52AM

Since you pay like 1000$ for a Wii it's only natural you'll try to recoup that with pirated games. Damn those abusive BR prices!

(Also, I know a lot of BR people on a MMORPG you play, and damn so many of them are stupid...)

Slaziman @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:11AM

an MMORPG *I* play... brain fart there.

ROk @ Jan 24th 2008 12:11PM

@Slaziman
"on a MMORPG you play,"

Guess who are the stupid here...

Cheers from Brazil o/

coolforever4537 @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:45PM

Good thing I don't live in Brazil.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Jan 22nd 2008 2:48PM

They have FOX News in Brazil?

deABREU @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:35PM

no, but all the open-broadcast tv channels here are all like fox news, politically-wise :B (and only a tiny percentage of population has cable, so you can imagine the damage it does to common sense).

funny thing is, like in other poor people-population majority countries (southeast asia, anyone?), lan houses are terribly popular here (lots of them with outdated hardware), so CS is still wildly popular. Never heard of anyone playing everquest, though its client was distributed as a free cd in a magazine some years ago.

nevermind banning those games's sales... most of them are pirate here, and the few of us who like to pay the developers can do it over steam(-like platforms), so it's really a non-issue.

Nick the Hero of Canton @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:48PM

It was a joke. But good post, regardless, so uber plus.

Ibere @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:02PM

Man I hate this country so much... I'm so glad I'll be moving to Canada until the end of this year. Brazil is the most retarded country in the world.

RudyHuxtable @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:14PM

Good to see they banned these obscene and offensive games just in the nick of time.

arrrgh @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:03PM

yeah man!!! without these violent games, the streets of rio will be safe again!!!

RudyHuxtable @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:20PM

HA! I just want my city back! Down with EverQuest!

Ibere @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:18PM

It's not exactly "our angle", just simply the only way to go... with the average Brazilian salary being $500 and the price of a recently launched game being something like $150, it' simply impossible to have only original games.

Ibere @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:19PM

It was supposed to be a reply to Jerk Face's comment. Oh well...

HolyChachi @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:19PM

So it's ok to export cocaine, but not import games...nice.

Chameleon @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:38PM

beat me to it ....

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:24PM

Beat me to it, as well.

Dick @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:30PM

Brazil's Chief Export is Sugar Cane, and Sweet Ass.

Blow... Not So Much.

Colombia, now there's a blow pit.

James @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:35PM

You beated me with your speed stick too.

ThornedVenom @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:41AM

Greedy immoral economics:

Exporting expensive products = Income.
Importing expensive products = Expenses.

Sam406 @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:20PM

What?! But... The best Latin Counter Strike team at DRECTV's Championship Gaming Series was form Rio de Janeiro!

HolyChachi @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:21PM

As long as they don't ban brazillian bikini waxes, im happy!! Are we going to have to start calling it a "freedom" bikini wax...

Procopio @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:25PM

Very ineffective as the ban is on selling those games.

Everquest is not even sold here, and I dare you to point me someone who really bought CS.

This judge is just looking for press.

Brian Sexton @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:33PM

> Just so you're clear: EverQuest is an attack on democracy, but censorship isn't.

I don't know if that is meant to be snarky, but democracy and censorship don't seem to have anything to do with each other except insofar as uncensored political statements and discussion are presumed essential to facilitate the democracy. The notion that democracy ensures anything beyond a political voice for citizens is a common mistake. Democracies can have completely legal slavery, completely legal gender or race discrimination, completely legal rape, and plenty of other horrible things if that is what a majority of the citizens or their representatives vote into law. Don't confuse a system of government with a system of morality.

Ted @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:06PM

"Just so you're clear: EverQuest is an attack on democracy, but censorship isn't."

@Brian Sexton

I have to disagree with you, a democracy with widespread censorship is a democracy by name only. If you misinform the public and hide facts about what the government is doing then any election becomes meaningless. It's almost as bad as banning the opposition party since you're just hiding all the reasons an opposition part should exist / deserves to win.

On your criticism of the quote I sort of agree though... It sounds like the judge had a ligitimate reason for banning them, even if his reasoning was completely wrong. If one were to assume that these games really result in "the subversion of public order" and constitute "an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security" and that that is a legal basis on which to ban creative expression in Brazil, then it is fair enough to make them illegal. It's the fact that those games most definitely DO NOT constitute that criticism that makes the court ruling stupid.

Brian Sexton @ Jan 22nd 2008 6:43PM

Those are qualitative assessments, Ted; I was referring to the most basic quantitative definition of democracy.

patricia @ Jan 23rd 2008 12:08AM

No, Brian, you are wrong, and you don't know what "quantitative" means.

Brian Sexton @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:03AM

Patricia, I appreciate the criticism of my vocabulary—insultingly curt, uninformative, unsupported, and just plain untrue as it was—but you are wrong and unlike you, I will support my assertion with an actual fact. From the context of how I used "quantitative", my meaning should have been obvious, but just to clarify, here is the relevant definition courtesy of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

"Of, relating to, or susceptible of measurement."

If you can't see how that applies to what I wrote or you still think I don't know what the word means, you might want to hold off on cracking wise and try cracking open a decent dictionary instead.

Slaziman @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:08AM

I thought democracies had constitutions by default, so legal slavery would be forbidden even if that's what the majority of the country wanted

Brian Sexton @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:53PM

Technically, a democracy could operate without a constitution, adhering to some kind of non-written principle of decision-making, but that probably wouldn't be very practical for a voting body of more than a few people in a direct democracy, similar to three people voting for which movie the group should watch together.

Classical era Athens, the Roman Republic, and the early United States of America all had simultaneous democracy (direct democracy in Athens and representative republics in Rome and the USA) and chattel slavery.

Dan @ Jan 22nd 2008 6:43PM

How bizarre! I mean, this is coming from the land of in which breasts bounce freely on the beaches and people beat each other down in MMA fights, etc. Weird!

Batalha @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:50PM

Facts about this: we (brazilian game journalists) started a blog on the subject, it is liberdadegamer.wordpress.com and acording to brazilian judicial system they cant ban the sequals unless it says so explicitly, just to keep score CS1=Bad CS:Source=OK. Oh yeah, and Everquest was never released here so...