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Felipe Vaz is the coordinator of Instituto Overmundo, which promotes access to knowledge and cultural diversity in Brazil through innovative practices in communication, intellectual property, and technology. Felipe describes Brazil's “LAN house revolution.” These LAN houses initially began as local networks where (mostly) young people would go to play multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. More recently they have connected to the internet and are used for social networking, chatting, and job searching. The estimated 90,000 LAN houses across Brazil account for 50% of available internet access in the country. These are illegal operations which don't have business permits and don't pay taxes. The Brazilian government so far has taken an adversarial position toward the LAN houses, arguing that they encourage young people to miss class. But others, like Brazilian blogger Jeimy Remir, think that LAN houses have a positive impact both for their owners and customers.

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