Now I’m not very good at the ol’ arithmetic. But today, Brazil gave Google 15 days to turn over Orkut user data or risk being fined $61 million for damaging the country’s “collective moral value.” So if I’m reading this abacus correctly, that means the morality of each of their 186 million citizens is worth about three bucks. Or wait. Is it 30 cents per person? Told you I wasn’t any good at math.
Anyway, this from the country that brought us the samba and death metal band Sepultura.
Here’s a synopsis of Google’s problems in Brazil. Here’s another synopsis from SearchEngineWatch, and a good article from BusinessWeek about Google’s Brazil headache.
Is there a lawyer out there who can parse for me why Google is having difficulty complying with Brazilian law, and yet the company has explained before (re: China) that they comply with local laws and regulations?