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]
Reader Comments (42)
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 2:35PM (Unverified) said
I can see how they might ban retail sale, but how exactly do you ban online transactions (Steam)?
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 2:39PM (Unverified) said
funny, both games were made in the US too. i'll miss my Brazilian buddies in CS.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 2:42PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said
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...
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However, they quickly backed off of that, and only prevented the sale of them.
Not sure how it affects the sequels, though...
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 2:44PM Lone Starr said
"Subversion of public order" is right. The elves need to be stopped. I've been saying it for years: Keebler was just the beginning.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 2:44PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 9:27PM vmenge said
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).
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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).
Posted: Jan 24th 2008 12:11PM (Unverified) said
@Slaziman
"on a MMORPG you play,"
Guess who are the stupid here...
Cheers from Brazil o/
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"on a MMORPG you play,"
Guess who are the stupid here...
Cheers from Brazil o/
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:35PM (Unverified) said
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.
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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.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:48PM Nick the Hero of Canton said
It was a joke. But good post, regardless, so uber plus.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:02PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:14PM RudyHuxtable said
Good to see they banned these obscene and offensive games just in the nick of time.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 5:20PM RudyHuxtable said
HA! I just want my city back! Down with EverQuest!
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:18PM (Unverified) said
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.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:19PM (Unverified) said
It was supposed to be a reply to Jerk Face's comment. Oh well...
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:19PM (Unverified) said
So it's ok to export cocaine, but not import games...nice.
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 4:30PM (Unverified) said
Brazil's Chief Export is Sugar Cane, and Sweet Ass.
Blow... Not So Much.
Colombia, now there's a blow pit.
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Blow... Not So Much.
Colombia, now there's a blow pit.
Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 1:41AM ThornedVenom said
Greedy immoral economics:
Exporting expensive products = Income.
Importing expensive products = Expenses.
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Exporting expensive products = Income.
Importing expensive products = Expenses.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:20PM (Unverified) said
What?! But... The best Latin Counter Strike team at DRECTV's Championship Gaming Series was form Rio de Janeiro!
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:21PM (Unverified) said
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...
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Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 3:33PM (Unverified) said
> 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.
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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.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 4:06PM GenBanks said
"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.
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@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.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 6:43PM (Unverified) said
Those are qualitative assessments, Ted; I was referring to the most basic quantitative definition of democracy.
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Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 12:08AM (Unverified) said
No, Brian, you are wrong, and you don't know what "quantitative" means.
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Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 6:03AM (Unverified) said
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.
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"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.
Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 5:53PM (Unverified) said
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.
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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.
Posted: Jan 22nd 2008 8:50PM (Unverified) said
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...
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Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 12:38AM Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect said
I don't get this. How do this games...wait, I do get it! Polititians that don't wanna act up on crime want some perdacao du tempo. Obrigado, bitches!
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Posted: Jan 23rd 2008 1:40AM ThornedVenom said
"You may have won the battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun."
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