The Third Panel of the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice affirmed the decision¹ ordering the entity responsible for domain names “.br” (“NIC.br”) to pay damages to the actress Carolina Ferraz due to the registration of a pornographic website under the actress’ name.
In this case, the actress filed a lawsuit against K1 and NIC.br, seeking damages due to the improper and unauthorized use of the domain name carolinaferraz.com.br.
The lower court held that NIC.br and K1 were jointly liable and ordered the payment of damages of approximately USD 11,000 and the assignment of the domain name to the actress. On appeal, NIC.br’s liability was rejected by the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio de Janeiro (“TJRJ”). However, in judging a motion of reconsideration, the TJRJ affirmed the lower court’s decision.
Upon judging NIC.br’s special appeal, the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice acknowledged NIC.br’s liability and held that the entity is able to mitigate the risk of damages arising from its activity, as well as to filter the system to control the prohibitions set by the Brazilian Internet Management Committee for domain name registration.
¹ Special Appeal No. 1.695.778