Amnesty Calls Shenannigans on MS, Sun, Cisco

ZurichPrague writes "Amnesty International is claiming Microsoft, Sun, Nortel and Cisco, among others, have broken the law by selling filtering technology to China, helping that country implement its censorship. Is Amnesty right? Making the technology is fine, but if we know that it could be used for ill, aren't we bound to not sell to some countries and companies? C/Net has the story here."

Comments

laws?

[lingqi]

What laws were broken by selling stuff to China? the companies are doing what they are there to do - to make a buck; while the moral grounds on which these actions stand may be questionable, so far the story does not provide any evidence whatsoever that these companies are breaking US or Chinese laws.

At the same time, I just want to repeat Lenin's lil phrase "A capitalist will sell the ropes for the hanging of another capitalist".

To a great (and depressing) extent, this is very true. Corporations are not doing things because they are The Right Thing (tm), but because it makes more profits. But then the reason for corporations to exist is always to make profits, so what the hell you guys expect? look at all the company motto and "visionary statement", around and around it circles the "stockholders." Not the hungry kids in wherever, not the mother earth, and sure as heck not the principles of all that's good and right.

So to have a system like this, you gotta live with the consequences, which is that sometimes companies will do morally questionable things, and sometimes illegal things. the illegal we can bust them - but the morally questionable, well...

Lastly, what you guys think if the US government started buying censoring technology, MS, Sun, Cisco, whoever won't jump on it right away? and how exactly is that any better from selling the same technology to China / Cuba / whatever?