Thailand scraps lawsuit plans against Google over YouTube king video News
Thailand scraps lawsuit plans against Google over YouTube king video

[JURIST] The Thai government announced Friday that it has decided not to sue internet search giant Google [corporate website] after the company agreed to remove a YouTube video considered insulting to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej [Wikipedia profile]. In April Thailand banned [JURIST report] access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube [corporate website], now owned by Google, for hosting a video depicting the king as a clown with feet pasted over his head, an insulting image in Thai culture that can amount to a criminal offense. The video, less than a minute long, received more than 16,000 viewers.

Critics say the government is using the ban as an excuse to ban websites critical of the September 19 military coup [JURIST news archive] that overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.