YouTube has been hailed as the greatest invention since the Internet itself, a bottomless cultural warehouse and the future of entertainment. A steamy Brazilian video has demonstrated that the online video giant is something else as well: vulnerable.

For days, much of Brazil was unable to access YouTube after a judge ordered the site to block a video of Daniela Cicarelli, one of the country's most famous models, caught in intimate acts on the beach.

YouTube removed links to the video, but new versions popped up as quickly as they were taken down. The site didn't have enough mallets to keep up with the virtual whack-a-mole, and, following the judicial order, a huge Internet service provider blocked the site altogether.

The judge reversed the ruling Tuesday and lifted the order that led to the YouTube ban, but said the site had to figure out a way to make the video inaccessible.

The pesky video may point to chinks in the YouTube model, the digital sharing concept, and, possibly, in the Internet 2.0. The sites rely on a social contract with the public — the people will provide the content, and the site will host the party.

But that assumes people will behave themselves.

Time magazine and others have applauded "You" for your contributions to the interactive Internet, but what happens if "You" decide to tear it down?

FRIENDLY USERS

Take a step back, and it's a surprise that YouTube works at all.

Why hasn't it turned into an endless porno catalog? Sure, there are "flag as inappropriate" tags beneath each video, but why haven't smut peddlers and hackers gotten around them?

YouTube, which is owned by Google, relies on the public to police the site, editors to review what's been labeled offensive, and technology to block the outlawed videos.

But the people are the frontline defense. This is the opposite of a nanny state, where Big Brother knows what's best. In some ways, interactive sites trust the public more than the government does — or most other large institutions. It's not anarchy — there are rules of what's acceptable and what's not — but it is power from the bottom up.

"It's the whole concept of the wisdom of the crowd," said Jennifer Simpson, an analyst at the technology consulting firm Yankee Group. "If enough people are offended by something, it probably makes sense to take it down."

YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.

But the public doesn't always follow the rules — just ask Michael Kinsley.

When Kinsley was at the Los Angeles Times, he created something he called 'wikitorials,' which allowed readers to rewrite editorials online. When it launched in 2005, the paper introduced the feature as, "A constantly evolving collaboration among readers in a communal search for truth."

Readers responded by posting pornography and offensive material, and the paper abandoned the experiment after three days.

"There's not much you can do if the audience keeps reposting it," said Robert Card, a senior analyst at the Internet consulting firm, Jupiter Research. "Anybody is vulnerable to this kind of thing."

So far, interactive Web sites are winning the battle against malicious contributors. Wikipedia, Craigslist and MySpace have all gone from useful to just about indispensable.

But this could be a long fight. Spammers are doing a good job of making e-mail unpleasant — could rogue hackers do the same for YouTube and friends?

"People have to police themselve and people have to have some modicum of decent behavior," said Card. "But humanity is not run by good guys."

THE FACE THAT SUNK A THOUSAND CLIPS

The Cicarelli video isn't especially racy — there's no nudity, and the action seems to happen in the ocean, far from prying video lenses.

But even if YouTube succeeds in removing the video for good, people who want to see the video online will find it — just like they'll find grandmothers with horses, Larry Bird in the 1986 finals, and their ex-girlfriend's blog. It's the miracle of the Internet, and Daniela Cicarelli caught on a Spanish beach with Brazilian banker Renato Malzoni can't rattle that foundation.

The Internet mirrors regular society: there are regular folks and criminals, Skid Rows and white picket fences. YouTube, and most interactive sites, work like a Neighborhood Watch program in a good neighborhood — instead of relying on police to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, responsible citizens will flag a video. YouTube's bet, and it seems a reasonable one, is that the user community will function more like Levittown than Mogadishu.

But the power is in the hands of the public, and as the confusion in Brazil demonstrates, just one measly sex tape can upset the most solid balance.

Sam Dolnick had to watch the Daniela Cicarelli video for work.

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