From The Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Google Inc. appealed on Thursday a federal judge’s order to turn over information on users of the company’s Orkut social-networking service.

Google insisted it already had complied with court requests to identify individuals accused of using Orkut to spread child pornography and engage in hate speech against blacks, Jews and homosexuals.

Thursday’s filing came on the court-imposed deadline for turning over users’ numeric Internet addresses, which can help identify the individuals. Risking daily fines of $23,000, Google argued, among other things, that the federal civil court did not have the proper jurisdiction.

“The orders were directed by criminal judges,” Durval de Noronha Goyos, the lawyer representing Google said by telephone from Sao Paulo. “It’s up to them to say that they haven’t been responded to.”

It was not immediately clear whether the court would accept Google’s argument or start fining the Mountain View-based company.

Google has said it is open to data requests from foreign governments as long as they comply with U.S. laws and are issued within the country in which the information is stored.

Federal Judge Jose Marcos Lunardelli rejected that reasoning on Aug. 22, saying “all the photographs and messages being investigated were published by Brazilians, through Internet connection in national territory.”

The Sao Paulo federal prosecutor’s office said Google was in clear defiance of the judge’s order and could be fined at any moment.

The battle between Brazilian prosecutors and Google seem to revolve around whether requests should be handled by Google Inc. in the United States or by its Brazilian affiliate, which Google insists is only a marketing office. At issue is whether information stored on computers in the United States should be subject to Brazilian or U.S. law.

Google said it has handed over user information in 38 cases in which requests have been directed through the United States, rather than the Brazilian affiliate.

Named after Turkish software engineer Orkut Buyukkokten, Orkut is an invitation-only service run by Google. The service, which lets members discuss a wide range of subjects in Internet forums, or “communities,” is more popular in Brazil than in any other country, with some 8 million users — representing about a quarter of all Brazilians who have Internet access.