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China Will Monitor, Censor SMS Messages
maggeth writes "Early reports on the AP (via Yahoo) indicate that China will begin monitoring and censoring SMS communications in real time. China's 'great firewall' is infamous, but the move to censoring SMS has been slow due to technological roadblocks. Algorithms are used to identify key words and combinations of words that might be associated with 'political rumors and "reactionary remarks,"' and the system automatically notifies local police. Something to think about on your Fourth of July weekend!" Reader ackthpt adds links to coverage at the BBC and The Register, asking "What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"
I'm almost tired of hearing stories about this sort of thing. Is it an Amercian "we are better" additude or what? Check out the policy that AT&T has regarding SMS, turns out they log 3 months worth ... ala, the Amercians monitor it too.
However, because its written in black and white in the agreement it's no news... ahh yahh..
Wireless Security Cameras
Gamblers Forum
If you make a call that the NSA has processed your conversation. The only difference is the "in the U.S. we protect personal freedoms", but don't worry, the Bush administration is working hard to remove that distinction.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
Good thing programs like Trillian allow encryption of instant messages, largely defeating such a system (not only do the messages need to be scanned, but cracked and then scanned)
... it's the Chinese. Their government just serves as a reminder of how far we in America have yet to fall. Even though our rights have been eroded significantly, we'll always have China to remind us that the good old USA still remains the land of the free.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
I heard the chinese are going to transmit all the power from the three gorges damn to their moon base with microwaves no less!
Suck a lemon?
"What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"
Like this, or maybe this, or this
I don't know if the Chinese have a system like this yet, but we already have Echelon, so were set.
(For those of you to lazy to read all the articles, Echelon is a global communications spy network run by the NSA (with cooperation, in the form of listening posts, from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It gives them the capability to listen to and monitor any broadcast transmission on the planet.)
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thraktuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
d1Z NU c3N50R5h1P 5uX.
D G0v3RNm3n7 5ux. m40 5UX.
D 0NL3 7ru7h 1Z PH4Lun D4F4.
l37Z g0 8uRN 0Ur53lV3z n pr07357.
"However, because its written in black and white in the agreement it's no news..."
You forget one can leave their service provider for another. What will the Chinese leave their government for?
This story provides an intriguing corollary to what is happening in the US. It's a sober reminder of what the end result can be when Big Brother gets too much power over technological lines of communication and the ordinary lives of citizens.
I'm sad to say that I have noticed a disturbing gravitation towards this kind of draconian system by our government who has somehow convinced the majority of the populace that they should be granted whatever monitoring rights they want because we need them to protect us from terrorists. Personally, I could give jack sh*t about terrorists on a minute by minute basis throughout most of my day. I feel much safer keeping certain parts of my life private and away from the Washington watchdogs.
The reality of the situation is that if we willingly give up all rights to privacy something like this type of system is not going to be far away, though few see it.
China Will Feed, Take Care Of Citizens
| Posted by timothy on 2004-07-03 2:44
from the enlightenment-by-fat dept.
maggeth writes "Early reports on the AP (via Yahoo) indicate that China will begin feeding and taking care of citizens in real time. China's 'great society' is infamous, but the move to feed citizens has been slow due to technological roadblocks. Algorithms are used to identify key hungers and combinations of desires that might be associated with 'empty stomaches and "unfulfilled needs,"' and the system automatically notifies local farmers. Something to think about on your Fourth of July weekend!" Reader ackthpt adds links to coverage at the BBC and The Register, asking "What next, a massive government database system to track every person and when they last ate?"
Though the Chinese Government now trying to maintain such control over it's population is fighting a losing battle. Control WAS just about possible before the prolification of IT for the masses, but now the Chinese Government is trying to stop the tide. There is NO WAY to keep up such control on modern communications. Even with auto-text-pattern matches and auto-calling-of-the-local-police, all the participants need to do is use code words!
I think we can expect the Chinese Government, in the next couple of years, in effect throw in the towell and permit uncensored communication to occur. If they do not the populus will have found ways round it anyway. Then what - who knows... I hope not another Tiananmen Square.
Web Sig: Eddy Currents
I live in Shanghai for almost a year now, and I have never seen anyone showing any ID card when buying or recharging a mobile phone card.
Most people use a prepaid card that they recharge in 30, 50 and 100 Yuan quantities.
It works quite well and I have been using such a quasi anonymous card for almost the whole time.
How would the government track down such numbers to names? Maybe through correlation of SMS communication?
Ouch. Learning that China censors SMS messages is like seeing . You know something is wrong, but until you learn the details it seems less of an outrage.
reeddavid.com
Ah yes! Echelon. The system so good, even God himself uses it.
Ah yes, learn the truth from a movie that is being billed as a documentary, because everyone knows documentaries are objectively truthful. Unfortunately, this is a heavily political movie that tries to push Moore's view as the truth, rather than objectively stating it. Don't get me wrong here, I'm no right wing zealot (though I usually sit on the right side of the fence, I'm certainly not so blind to it that I'll be voting for Bush in the fall) but Moore is far from trying to lay out 'just the facts' here.
I'm always right and I can prove it, because to the best of my knowledge, I've never been wrong.
Anyone know of a phone that can encrypt/decrypt the messages when they're sent & recieved?
We will be good Americans and look the other way so long as China is still a valuable business partner.
yeah there are im clients that can be used for semi-secure conversations, like trillian and gaim, but the fact is that if someone with resources (like china) wants to break the code, then the code will get broken, its just that simple unfortunately, although it may take a while to do, with todays most modern and highpowered computers, you could easily crack a message perhaps even within a day. But the fact of the matter is that noone really cares, we have secure email, but almost noone actually bothers to encrypt their email do they? People allow emails with sensitive information to fly across the net, unencrpyted, and this happens all the time, my estimate is that at least 3/4 of all computer users dont know what encryption is past a rudimentary concept, and 9/10 of the remainder don't bother to actually use encryption although they know about it... just my two cents
"Even though our rights have been eroded significantly, we'll always have China to remind us that the good old USA still remains the land of the free."
Or until the next Florida-style election come November.
well according to the news, hongkong had a protest of about 200,000 people after beijing announced that it(again) that its decision was final, and that they would not allow demacratic elections. details
now from what i saw when i went to hk, taipei, i would say that people there care much more about thier SMS's than voting..... so china get ready for a revolt. i have a feeling that people arent going to want this crap once they get a taste of what the modern world is like.
No. We're not already there. Even though both governments are powerful, one is paranoid (China) and the other is confident (USA). China made the error that you need to censor people. It's like trying to put your thumb over a garden hose. At any pressure, no matter how hard you try, you're going to loose. If you actively inhibit speech, people will turn to underground means of expressing themselves, usually through political subversion. Pressure builds up, and eventually when collectively one BILLION people wake up and realize they've been had, the communist Chinese government is history. Whereas in America, there isn't even a hose. All that political pressure just evaporates into thin air. Why censor when you can capture the minds of the people directly, through subliminal media?
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
I have many friends who are of the opinon that its only a matter of time before China takes over the world. I find it hard to believe that such things could be practiced by a world controlling country, but I guess they already are. Living in the US, its so easy to forget that more people live in China thatn the US. And that these things are an everyday experiance for these people. We live in frightening times.
- Captbaritone
Ship's ahoy!
The US already collects China's SMS data. It's called Echelon--maybe the US could just sell access to it's database to the Chinese?
All your SMS are belong to U.S.
- the CIA used to be prevented from spying on US citizens, not the NSA.
- Patriot act I and II (which was quietly approved on the day that we announced the "capture" of Sadaam) stripped all that pretense away. Any group is allowed to spy on us, with any group being (NSA, CIA, Fatherland Defense, and DOJ).
Are we any different than China? Yes we are. We have the ability to auto spy on most aspects of our life. That allows the feds to focus on the otherI'm sure, almost POSITIVE that Echelon reads SMS messages in the US. They don't censor them, but I'm sure if you're up to something they notify authorities. How else will they achieve the New American Century? ... yes you know.
... yes we know.
I'm sure they have tons of backup plans. Including
Sharks with freakin
*DrugCheese rants*
The MPAA would like to take a moment to congratulate the Chinese government on their forwarding looking actions. The ability to maintain order in these uncertain times by thwarting the propagation of negative reviews of new movies as well as old regimes.
Please forward any MS Word templates for the secret laws you passed to put this in place so we can send them to our employees in State and Federal legislative offices.
Sincerely, Domo iragato, and sorry about Lost in Translation,
The MPAA and our new figurehead.
...we'll always have China to remind us that the good old USA still remains the land of the free.
...we'll always have China to remind us how good we used to have it.
"It could be worse" is an awful justification for the present. If you continue to think that way your statement above will look slightly different in a few years....
That is to say, we could fall farther down the slippery sloap than China ever has.
(Yes, this post is BS - but this is YRO, such is the norm under that flag.)
th3r3 r s3v3ral way to 3vad3 filt3rs bas3d 0n w0rds, 3v3n with0ut using crypt0graphy
It's like trying to put your thumb over a garden hose. At any pressure, no matter how hard you try, you're going to loose.
WRONG, you can using a human thumb completely block a garden hose, at MANY pressures (including zero).
when collectively one BILLION people wake up and realize they've been had, the communist Chinese government is history
WRONG, atm a large proportion of the population of China are really benefiting from its governments rule. The Chinese government is run by 'the party' yes, and just about anyone can join the party.. so it does to some extent represent the people of China, and its interests. Many Chinese are actively interested and informed about the current state of politics in China and even the rest of the world. I very much doubt that there would be any sence of 'waking up'.
Your comments seem to be heavily laced with the dogma present in US media today. Just try to remember to blink when you're watching it.
Seriously, try to pull this type of stunt in North Korea and see what happens.
atm a large proportion of the population of China are really benefiting from its governments rule.
'A Large proportion of the population' also benefited from segregation.... Free societies are judged by how well they protect the rights of the individual.... not how many they sacrifice 'for the greater good'
I don't think you would need anything as sophisticated as encryption to defeat this. I assume that encryption would be banned anyway if it worked (sounds a bit familiar...)
A low tech solution is just to use code phrases - SMS people seem to use enough of those already. Won't fool a human but it'll get past the automatic filters. A funny example was the use of the number 9 on restaurant signs which sounds like "dog" in Cantonese to advertise that delicacy while avoiding the wrath of the British. Since people in China already know that their e-mail and chat rooms are monitored I assume that they are already doing things like this.
The government could of course, adjust their filters from time to time as they learn of these things but my guess is that the clueless party official who suggested this is happy that it has been implemented and that it looks like they are in control and doing something. Whether it works or not is not really that important.
In Soviet Russia, we.. um.. think this is a damn good idea.
Apple has never claimed not to be evil, they're just very stylish about it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/03/text_punk/
And I'm sure it happens in the USA as well.
I'll start now, how about:
logs of all of your messages will be kept by the company for a period of time, then if the government thinks your involved in ANYTHING, they will sequester these logs, not simply for purposes of proving guilt, but to show a bunch of simpletons what an awful person you are for questioning the premises and practices of the worlds finest, nicest, and most highly regarded democracy.
to make sure supply meets demand COM.
preview! :p
grrrr
I'd really love an edit function
You know, I'm all for privacy and everything. But, the data that you could get from monitoring all SMS messages, all emails, etc would be fascinating from a sociological research perspective. I mean, you could do things like building a complete social network for all of society. Of course, you could do pretty bad things with it if you were a totalitarian government, but it would still be really interesting to look at.
Makes me wonder if AOL or someone would ever try something like this, just for market research.
but yeah, it would suck to live in China.
Interestingly, China isn't the only nation to pull some internet censorship in east Asia lately, South Korea (of all places) has been censoring internet sites that link to the video of a Korean getting decapitated in Iraq. They've got to the point of blocking most major blog hubs. Goes to show you that totalitarianism isn't limited to "communist." In fact, both SK and Taiwan were pretty bad in the past, but we supported them because "communism" was much worse then "totalitarianism." But those two are getting better, both being democracies now.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Dont take your party hats out and celebrate just yet. The US has an even bigger system that spies on just any communication. Nothing stops Bush or anyone in charge from using it in political games since its all under a [Top Secret] stamp. The new antiterror laws that lets the govt detain someone indefinitly without telling anyone is also a great tool to stay in power.
The US is just as bad as China but its more polished on the outside. The difference is that china is open about what they do.
HTTP/1.1 400
"d1Z NU c3N50R5h1P 5uX.
D G0v3RNm3n7 5ux. m40 5UX.
D 0NL3 7ru7h 1Z PH4Lun D4F4.
l37Z g0 8uRN 0Ur53lV3z n pr07357."
Translation:
Does anyone here know were the men's bathroom is?
If only it was as easy and simple as killing El Shrub...
If he departs, more swine will take his place.
It is the military-industrial complex which must be dealt a death blow, and that is considerably more difficult than killing one man.
But we'll give it our best shot !
- Osama
Hasn't anyone been paying attention to the motions being filed in the Kobe Bryant trial? The defense specifically subpoenaed the accuser's cellphone provider, requesting that they hand over copies of all text messages that she sent on the night of "the incident." The defense apparently believes that the accuser texted her other boyfriend(s) that night, with messages that could be pertinent to the case.
That this information was able to be requested in the first place was quite a shock to me. The request presumes and assumes that the cellphone company keeps copies of all text messages sent across its network; and as far as I've heard, there's been no denial of this capability! I had previously assumed that text messages existed in the moment, but that apparently isn't true. Every text message you send or receive is potentially being logged by your wireless provider.
Careful what you say, it may come back to haunt you, even if it isn't Big Brother doing the watching.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
"Slashdotter meet NSA, NSA meet Slashdotter. NSA says he already knows you, *well*."
While I have you on the phone. Thanks for all the security work you've done on the Linux kernel.
And we really appreciate the work done on 3DES (still not broken), and the financial, and satellite industry does too.
It's better to have some idea when you're being watched, if you live in a police state. If in a police state you're being watched and /not/ censored, you never really know if /you're/ the one being watched. If your messages start getting censored, well it would be obvious.
In some ways, China has a more honest approach with their barbarism than the US. China is at least very upfront about their intentions. They are watching and you may go into a gulag. It's pretty clear. In the US, you are being watched and instead of being clear coherent about it, they always try to mindfuck you. "For your safety. For the Homeland."
If there was ever a word that would come from a sociopath, it would be the word "Homeland". That is not a common word in the American lexicon.Words like this don't appear out of the blue. Lot of thought went into that. A lot of thought about thinking. Kind of like how Pavlov thought about his dogs.
All this bold and blatent meddling with the American psyche is starting to scare me. Such disrespect and careless tampering sends a message loud and clear. "We own you." And it's true. Americans, and most people around the world are owned property in so many subtle ways, that once you add them all together, there is no room left over for anyone (who desired it) to be free. Let's let debt be one of the less subtle methods to allowing yourself to become property. Consider cultures immense pressure to encourage debt for everyone. Consider what is happening to culture itself. No longer a free and natural exchange of information between human beings but a top down force-feeding of this sick "television culture" we have. You are composed of the information you allow yourself to be exposed to.
You fools will protect your computer with a firewall but when it comes to your own brain you feel invincible and plop down on the couch for hours on end and let an entire universe of sociopaths(a direct metaphor for marketing) have their way in any way they want with your own brain.
This is a sad and critical time in human history. I wonder what's going to become of us? Keep an eye on the television brain-washed crowd. I suspect whatever strange crap happens, they're gonna get it first. Think about it. You might consider life as some 70 odd years of crossing busy intersections. If you aren't paying attention the more subtle trucks will run over you first, followed by whatever else crosses your path when you're not looking.
What did your television tell you do do in the days shortly before the big internet/stocks crash. your television told you to buy. *splat*
This is common sense. Pull your heads out of your asses. Thanks.
that sends boatloads of spam?
John Kerry is a Joke!
That's two stories in a row about the SMS.
Now whilst I can't help but agree with and share your democractic ideals, too often Americans assume that everyone wants the same type of government they have. 'The Chinese need liberating'? You seem to say that about everyone these days. There's probably a significant block of people in the PRC that actually like feeling safe, that their government is protecting them, and that any undermining of the government is an undermining of the country itself. Sure, the leadership may not live up to the ideal of serving only the rest of the country as its peers, but many people are very blind to that. They don't *want* to be liberated, and I think the fact that China's still so undemocratic rather shows this.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
"The US is just as bad as China but its more polished on the outside. The difference is that china is open about what they do."
You do realize your body will turn up, face down in the nearest body of water, and it will not be for swimming lessons.
getting sent around and out of China's networks, the government will be scrutinizing it for criticism of itself??
John Kerry is a Joke!
If the leash is removed right now and the Party dissolved, only the worst types of people - the most despicable arch-villains, mobsters, aspiring politicians - will be on top, simply because they know how to wield power. It would be awfully reckless to give them the power. China will be torn into pieces, and every one will have The Bomb.
I just ended a vacation in China, and pre-paid SIM cards could be obtained over the counter at the local supermarket with no ID check or anything. Then you could recharge it with other cards similarly bought over the counter. So how's one supposed to control anything when you don't know who's sending and to whom?
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Do they have L337 $p3@k for Chinese? This time it might be useful.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
They don't *want* to be liberated, and I think the fact that China's still so undemocratic rather shows this.
"Nosirree, my slaves don't want to be free. The fact that they haven't freed themselves shows this. No need for emancipation..."
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
In Australia during the Tampa "crisis" (when four hundred odd refugees were rescued by the contaainer ship Tampa Bay), the Defence Signals Directorate intercepted phone conversations between the Maritime Union of Australia and the Tampa, and passed on transcripts of the conversations to the government.
They were caught that time, but it's probable that they're routinely scanning both internal and overseas (the Tampa is Norwegian) conversations. The tapping was judged to be illegal, but no prosecutions occurred, and nothing has been changed to prevent a repetition.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
One of the reasons the Chinese mooncake is famous (though why is it translated into English as "cake" when the Chinese word for the mooncake is closer to what they call "cookie/biscuit"? The Chinese word for "cake" is something else entirely. I guess "moon cookie" doesn't sound as great in English) is because it was used in the Han revolt against the Mongolians. As the harsh Mongolian rulers cracked down on normal communications the Han rebels hid messages inside the moon-cakes detailing the plans for the revolution and used this to co-ordinate the attack which overthrew the Yuan dynasty. Perhaps it is time for a new "moon-cake" project to facilitate secure communications in China via SMS and email with the "rebels" communicating with each other via innocent looking programs like animated greeting cards with encryted or hidden messages.
I was going to mod a lot of posts down due to stupid conspiracy theories, but I didn't see any posts with this point in mind.
(1) We have the second amendment. The chinese don't. If the government gets out of hand, we always have the upper hand. Mao said it best: Government comes from the point of a gun.
Don't like Bush? You have three options: (a) vote for the other guy, and do everything you can to get him elected, (b) pick up your rifle and follow the example of our founding fathers, pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in open rebellion, or (c) shut up and sit down, coward.
(2) We have a seperate judiciary, for the most part. Once appointed, a judge is pretty much left alone. This leads to some corruption, but the net effect is that President Bush can't order the judiciary what to do. Chinese don't have this.
Before you get your panties in a bundle over Gitmo, notice that Pres. Bush is bringing them into the homeland to prepare for arraignment and trial because Supreme Court said so. Who really controls the US? It sure ain't Bush.
(3) Patriot act gives the police the same rights that they have for prosecuting drug crimes and organized crime but now for terrorism. I certainly wish we didn't have the Patriot act, but what are the alternatives? Citizen vigilance, or martial law. That's about it. How many terrorists have you caught today? Didn't think so.
Citizens (that means YOU, unless you are a cop) have more rights to investigate crime and build cases against criminals than police do. Don't think so? Ask a bounty hunter about what he is able to do. Hint: Breaking and entering a felons home is not a crime for a bounty hunter. No warrant needed, either. Go ahead and arrest anyone you find in the house, and tie them up if need be. Bring them all downtown to get booked.
(4) The United States is the BEST and the LAST defense agaisnt tyranny. Make no joke about it, in no other country do you have as many rights that are protected by government as you do here. Is it perfect? Of course not. Rather than complain, get off your butt and do something about it.
If you really think the US is stinkier than other countries, then you are more than welcome to leave and rescind your citizenship. No one is keeping you here, unlike China.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
I'll always have Ron Jeremy to remind I'm not a big fat man-slut. But somehow I don't feel any better.
According to Xinhua, over 220 billion text messages were sent in China in 2003, making up some 55 percent of the world's text messages.
A dream is good. A plan is better.
Some guy gets picked up by Special Branch for sharing Clash lyrics by SMS.
I imagine this happens to most SMS messages in Europe. (Echelon conspiracies, yada yada) The US may have a less joined-up Big Brother, but that will probably have more to do with the general lack of integration of their mobile network.
Never trust a man in a blue trench coat, Never drive a car when you're dead
you may be familiar with; Encryption. Use it for EVERYTHING. What's the point of using it only for sensitive material? You're only telling the enemy(government) what to concentrate on and crack.
Right... It's easy to be the "land of the free" if you compare to dictatorships. Now try comparing to a real democracy and you'll look pretty sad (biggest prison population, repressive drug policy, aso...).
I hate to be a dick, but seriously... that would only be funny if China was in fact Japan, which it clearly is not. 'Domo arigato' is 'thank you' in Japanese, and Lost in Translation was set in Tokyo.
Atleast people find out that their privacy is invaded so they can think twice about saying or doing something, but America invades people's privacy just as much but just doesnt tell us.
That's how you and I judge free societies. It's a mistake to assume other cultures, including the Chinese, use the same criteria. Welcome to postmodernity.
Mmmm...I don't think that invading a country and forcing democracy on it is the best idea. Revolution must come from the people. Sort of like the [American|French] revolution. It defines the character of a country.
I'm Chinese, and although I am truly ashamed of China (as a country), I have Chinese friends who don't see a problem with the way China is governed (the opinion of the majority, I think).
The status quo should be kept, unless a majority of China would like things to change.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
From the outside America is looking more and more like the land of the free. If only Americas foreign policy was exercised to the same rules as applied internally at least few more people on the planet could feel they lived in a land of the free.
You realize, of course, that you come off as an adolescent poseur?
Just to add to your paranoia, Slashdot is tracking you every time you access this site! Wow! They know what you did and when you did it and what you read and what you posted!! Better call out the militia.
Whack yourself on the head and understand what is happening in China: Certain things you say in an SMS message will be censored by the state. They will never be seen by the other party. A computer program will key on certain language and alert the police.
The only recourse for the Chinese is revolution, which, of course, they can't say on the phone.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
At least the chinese goverment is not hypocrite:-t they say openly what they are going to do.
Remember echelon? Sure, the message passes through (an act feigning freedom of information) but then those people who used certain keywords inexplicably find themselves on government blacklists. Or rather; they DO NOT find themselves there:- such blacklists are not public.
With the government telling you what they're gonna do you can at least take precautions.
- "They misunderestimated me."
China snoops on text messages By Tim Richardson Published Friday 2nd July 2004 11:54 GMT China has extended its hard-line stand against human rights and personal freedom by introducing new rules to monitor and censor the use of text messages. According to state media, by way of AFP, the "Self-Discipline Standards on Content in Mobile Short Messaging Services" have been brought in to tackle porn, fraud and other dodgy content. But critics claim this is yet another move by Chinese authorities to clampdown on personal freedoms. They claim that the idea that the new rules will be used to tackle mobile phone fraud is just a smokescreen. Instead, they insist that the surveillance technology will be used to identify "reactionary" texters and pinpoint those spreading "false political rumours" and "reactionary remarks". Condemning the move media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, said: "The Chinese authorities are making ever greater use of new technology to control the circulation of news and information. In the past months we have been witnessing a real downturn in press freedom particularly on the Internet. The international community should react against this hardening by the Chinese regime." According to information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, China has 2,800 SMS surveillance centres. During the SARS epidemic in May 2003, these snooping centres worked flat out to monitor text messages sent about SARS. Around a dozen people were arrested as a result for having spread "false rumours" through their mobile phones, said the media rights group. Last month, Chinese websites, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Internet-related organisations across the country were "invited" to sign a self-discipline pact drawn up by the Beijing-based China Internet Association to prevent the spread of anti-government information, porn and anything else that might threaten "national security (and) social stability". ®
this gal looks like she would be pissed if she lost one SMS text.
The whole Ap article here.
My typical text message is "Hi Sweetheart I miss you. I watered the plants. The cats are being weird." Cost about 10 cents, a phone call to do the same thing costs 25 or more cents. We use pre-paid Virgin Mobile. If I have to leave a phone number to have her call someone she doesn't have to dig for a pen and paper. This is mostly about 98% of all non business texting.
If China thinks it needs to monitor and censor this kind of crap it really shows how fearful the oligarchy is of loosing it's grip. It's going to spend a lot of time and effort staring at white noise.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
victim-slash@richr.hopto.org
is where much of the gear and technology to do this work comes from. A lot of US companies are making a lot of money out of these kinds of ventures.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?
Oh, great, give Ashcroft another idea. I can already hear him drooling.
Let me laugh.
As a Finnish person, USA seems to be everything else than free. Software patents, lawsuits all over about very stupid things (things that you would be laugh out of court if you'd try something like that in Finland). Showing poops in TV causes horrible media-mess how horrible that is and so on. I'd call America land of hypocrisy rather than land of freedom. Proud to NOT to be American.
Any chinese nationals worried about this sort of thing are invited to my own network. We're even working on a steg tunnel... want to test?
"Nosirree, my slaves don't want to be free. The fact that they haven't freed themselves shows this. No need for emancipation..."
And you've talked with how many Chinese nationals about this? From what I gather at the grad school where I work many of them ARE happy with the status quo, and wish to go back as well. Sure, I can't see eye to eye with them on that, but it is none of our business.
That being said, how many of you "China must be a democracy" folks still buy Chinese made goods?
Their government just serves as a reminder of how far we in America have yet to fall
I think our news stories about their government serve as a reminder of how many news stories we don't publish about what our government has already been doing for years.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
Seriously, is there an age limit on stories off the wires nefore slashdot editors assume everyone already knows?
Possible solutions:-
1)The Linux SMS Cryptophone open source project. Encrypts voice/SMS, can anonomise the phone..
Anyone?
2) Ask people to flood the network with meaningless keywords to make it inoperable - aka the spammers solutions to baysean filters..
The main problem is public complacency to human rights - Orwells 1984 should be compulsory reading in every school..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
This is the problem, in the US or UK for example the government could never impose a law like that but if they just word it slightly differently they could just about sneak it in. How about requiring phone companies to keep a recording of their customers last few calls and messages for say 1 hour, if theres a 'major terrorist attack' these calls could be quickly accessed by the police based on the call locations and maybe even voice recognition? it would only be a slippery slope to exend that to 24 hours and more and redefine 'major terrorist attack'. I dont think we realise quite how free we have it by being able to talk (reasonably) freely but we have to stop pig-fucking politicians who are after our rights for their financial and/or crazy fundamentalist gain, let this be a lession for us to try harder to keep our freedoms.
Not to mention this system will be broken within hours - rot13, different languages, weird txt-codes - there are a million ways to get round a dumb filter.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
So what are the SMS addresses of Chinese political leaders?
I was living in China recently and sometimes came across articles like this one on Slashdot the moment they broke out. Sure enough, soon the Slashdot servers were unreachable and the site was blocked. This blocking would go on for a few days or sometimes longer. I could still find the offensive articles in the server after the site was unblocked. But it seems there is some agency responsible for monitoring sites and blocking them the moment there's trouble. I would suggest that editors be aware of this and carefully consider the wording of headlines and articles, not to provide censorship, but to avoid sounding unnessicarily inflammatory.
Stuff like this happens everywhere, even in the "civilized", "democratic" West where we enjoy such nice things as "freedom of speech".
In Norway, communists have been monitored closely since 1945; as part of our then new alliance with the USA. Phones were bugged, mail was opened, people were physically followed around by undercover police agents. During the student riots and the anti-war movement of the late 60s and early 70s, the political Norway was greatly radicalized, and a new communist party was founded. This of course caused the monitoring to be greatly increased.
In 1996, all this was officially investigated, and what was uncovered was indeed frightening. NATO had been practicing on attacks on peaceful anti-war activists, many thousands of people had been registered for having incorrect points of view, and millions, if not billions, had been spent on following people around. Even schools had been monitored. The lists of radicals had again been distributed to government-loyal labour unions and companies; don't hire these people! Many people grew paranoid and freaked out completely.
Several of my friends, who have been politically since the 60s and 70s, recieved tens of thousands of kroner in compensation after this uncovering of what they had known all the way. The police and government claims that the monitoring is over, that it all ended in 1996. But I do not believe it is a coincidence that I, being young and quite new in this movement, recently have started recieving mail that has been opened and not exactly discretely closed. A friend of mine, at my age, living just down the street from here, has all his mail opened, and his phone is behaving weird.
They are fast to asume things about countries they don't know. Overall Americans don't usually understand the sociologics of dictatorships and non-democratic countries. Neither recent history or they would know that many dictatorships where sponsored by USA. And no, I'm not trolling and I'm not anti-USA, it just happened in my country and a others places.
"I think this line is mostly filler"
If they ban the public's use of any encrypted tranmission ( this is China we are talking about, it may already be the case ) then anyone caught using it is hauled away, regardless of actual content.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Echelon = american
Carnivore = american
they do not censor, they just infiltrate your peace group or get you arrested for speaking against Bush (yes this is a reference to scenes of Fahrenheit 911).
It's easier to be shocked by other nation than our own but to critisize China for openly doing what the US are doing hypocriticaly (we all know it but still pretend it's just "stories") is disturbing to the least, it's like saying that removing people right is ok as long as you don't tell them which and you keep it a "secret".
Overall Americans don't usually understand the sociologics of dictatorships and non-democratic countries.
As in, "dictatorships suck"? That seems pretty self-evident to me. But then I'm an American, so what do I know?
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Free societies are judged by how well they protect the rights of the individual.... not how many they sacrifice 'for the greater good'
Unless you're one of the new pseudo-liberals in modern America. For them it's all about sacrificing the individual for the 'greater good'.
I also hear that same argument from quite a few Europeans, leading me to believe that 'socialism' and 'brainwashing' often go hand-in-hand. How any person could welcome self-enslavement so long as he has the satisfaction of knowing that his neighbor is enslaved as well is beyond me.
Once it becomes acceptable to sacrifice individual rights for the nebulous 'greater good' you're well on your way to a totalitarian hell. Insanely enough, it appears that a great many people find decision-making to troublesome to deal with, and would actively support having a nice little dictatorship take that burden from them.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
It has nothing to do with that, read grandparent post. We are talking about the people that lives in sucking dictatorships. You can't just talk to them like: your country sucks but don't worry, we'll explain it how to do it right. For example: that's Iraq to you.
You or me don't usually know a thing about other countries people real problems other than their way of government.
Dictatorships aren't the Evil Wizard, once killed doesn't mean there is an automatic Happy Ending (tm). That is just the begining of the story.
"I think this line is mostly filler"
See: US Civil War 1861-1865
Woe be on to them, all who rise against poor people, shall perish in a the end. Buju Banton
Every couple of days we see a new example of how China is restricting the masses' communications through the 'Great Firewall of China' or some stupid phrase like that, so it kinda makes me wonder: When will the Chinese revolt against this. Locke put it best: All people are endowed when then come into this world with basic inalienable rights (guess where the Declaration of Independence came from). It is the job of the government to protec these rights, and when they cannot, it is the job of the people to restructure their government so it does. This has happened a lot. France. The United States. Most of Europe in 1830 (and a few places in 1848). Tiananmen Square? No, I'm not talking about the guy in front of the tanks. I'm talking about the actual demonstration that led to that. The first Bloody Sunday.
So, when do you think there will be a full-fledged revolution? Hasn't Big Brother gotten too strong? It's bad enough that major forms of communications are blocked, such as internet access, but now much more smaller things, like SMS messages are beginning to be blocked?
--<Mike>--
Dictatorships aren't the Evil Wizard, once killed doesn't mean there is an automatic Happy Ending (tm). That is just the begining of the story.
Well no shit, Sherlock. Thanks for explaining that one to me.
BTW, I'm an isolationist. I could give a rat's ass if the Chinese are suffering under a dictatorship. It's *their* problem, not mine. I think the same thing about Iraq and wish to god we'd never gone there. If they won't liberate themselves, then fuck 'em.
That doesn't prevent me from saying, as an observable fact and not just an opinion, that "dictatorships suck". Because they do. It's really that simple.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
There's probably a significant block of people in the PRC that actually like feeling safe, that their government is protecting them, and that any undermining of the government is an undermining of the country itself
We've got those here in the United States; they're called "republicans". Unfortunately for them our current government is going to be "undermined" in November, exactly like it is every four years.
It's a good thing you didn't quote the first part of your parent's comment, because this post is an argument for segregation. (Or, against the 1964 civil rights law.)
"The urge to fly from modern systems, instead of moving through them to even greater, fairer things is, I think, an indi
As a Chinese, may I please request you to not liberate China. Especially if you're going to liberate China like you liberate Iraq. China has problems, no doubt about it and I'm not asking you to ignore China completely. But if I had the choice of you liberating China or leaving it alone -- civil war, dictatorship or whatnot -- then please leave China alone. The right of self-determination is more important than freedom of speech etc etc
That's not to say you only have two choices. Just by interacting, you're liberating the country, just not in a military manner. Don't buy goods made by prisoners. Insist on decent working conditions for Chinese made goods. Allow workers to form unions (remember, that's what brought down Polish communism). Insist on appropriate environmental standards. Allow China (and other developing countries) complete on a level-playing field (US and EU, I'm looking at your farm subsidies). Join Amnesty International. etc
But please keep your colonial, we're so much better attitudes, our freedom is the only freedom at home. Feel free to visit China sometime, it probably isn't as bad as your media makes out.
"we'll always have China to remind us that the good old USA still remains the land of the free."
Excepting the U.S. is becoming completely dependent on China for just about everything. Imagine if they shut off their imports how empty the shelves will be in your local stores, especially WalMart.
Today the U.S. might weather it but at the rate multinational corporations are rushing to move everything to China the U.S. will be totally at its mercy in a few years. Is America a sovereign nation and bastion of freedom when all its jobs are in China and all its dollars go to China and China can destroy the U.S. by stopping all the container ships from leaving its ports.
Its my conjecture China a decade or two ago deduced it couldn't beat the U.S. idealogically or militarily so its opting to beat the U.S. by exploiting its greatest weakness, its greed, and beat the U.S. economically.
They manipulate their currency to make China a great place for foreigners to invest and there good ridiculously cheap on foreign markets. They have a huge, subservient, labor pool which will be unlikely to ever see pressure for higher wages. They dangle that in front of greedy American execs who don't think past the end of the quarter and the U.S. guts its own economy and moves all its capital and intellectual property to China. One day the U.S. wakes up and realizes that the trade deficits have destroyed it, it doesn't make anything any more and China will has taken control of all the capital and IP. Some of the multinationals, and there execs, might survive and make a killing, but America's as a country is finished.
Last week figures came out on foreign investment in various countries. The U.S. was passed for the first time in recent history by China and it was by a lot. China had $50 billion in foreign investment versus $40 billion in the U.S.
@de_machina
this is still the eternal philosophical debates:
1) Judging from the "The intention vs The action"
2) Rulling by the rulls "a Mass of Greedy and Selfish Ignorants vs a Exortic* Radical Brilliand Individual"
Any gouvernement is only a conglomerate of ideology in order to perform these two elements
to Rule and To judge. First it will make the Rules and second it will judge if you follow the rules, how it inforce it are only periferial debates.
And after centuries of debates on these two core issues, of which faction is the best, there is still no answers.
Judging from the intension is a preventif actions, it is deemed the best, but you might pusnish those who had the moral stands to stop his own actions before the act. Or the other faction, it will only account you only after the damage is done.
As, in the communication monitoring, you can deem everyone guilty and track them all, or pinpoint who did somethng wrong and then find the evidences.
And on the other hand, its a fight about dictature or democracy. A good dictature is someone who want the good for the people, people are ingnorant of the greatness he is building, they think they are opressed. However, whith so much power in their hands, he/she moslikely turn ill in the mind and lead its contry to the desaster.
Nevertheless, on the other extreme, a contry gouverned by a mass of ignorant, can easily be overtaken by a smart evil dictateur (just like the marketing folk who manage to make you buy something you don't realy need and you thought it had values).
All in All, both faction are good in theorie, in practice, evil mind can overtake the place. The best way to do it, in my opinion, is to leave things as they are, on one side democracy on the other the communist. if you don;t like where you live, move on and go on the other. The bonnus, in the democratic faction you still have communist parties, and on the communist parties you still have capitalist leaders. Thus, extremes will never be crossed, and each side compete for the beterment of theire theorie, thus preventing the ill minded leaders to harvonc the contrie, since they are accountable to make the contry more prosper than the other to prove its ideology.
This shall work untill both side merges in the midle and we can form a planetary ferderation, and globalize mankind as one, and finaly get started to protects us from the real threats from outerspace-- as oposed from threats crated by our own ignorances.
PS: we are still a civilization class 0, lets work toward class I toggeter as depicted by Nikolai Kardashev.
mod parent asshole
The problem is that in an oppressive regime, there is no - literally no - opportunity for revolution. In 1776 in the Americas, it was a different story. You could expel the foreign rulers from individual towns, form a militia with common firearms, and fight gureilla style till you could raise an army to fight European style. Which is exactly what the United States did.
In China, as you know, how large a milita would it take to defeat the army? Where would you find such arms? The army is a huge bit of the government in China, and no peaceful revolution would suceed without the backing of the army. Any plan that would diminish the role of the army would never gain such backing.
"Keeping the status quo" is fine. But don't be fooled into thinking that you could change the status quo when all your friends get tired of it. It's just not an option. In this day and age, it requires significant military power to unseat a robust militarily backed government.
Just like Cisco and Yahoo helped with custom firmware and consulting services to give the PRC government the tools to oppress her people online, other American companies will bend over backwards to help with this. If there is any justice, the senior executives and people in the field who assist with these projects will be tried for crimes against humanity and hanged.
dumbass!
Yes, a lot of this happens in the USA. As someone who has done a bit of research into things like Echelon, MATRIX, etc., it's pretty easy to extrapolate a bit and imagine that there are even more crazy-ass systems that monitor us all the time.
Hell, my friend's parents work for a company that does cell phone tracking -- but not only can they track the phones in space and ID the owner, but they use the "pool" of radar waves from the cellular towers themselves to "see" objects in space! They actually can "visualize" pretty much any object in space, and then every object that happens to be carrying a cell phone can be ID'd in something like 8 seconds of them choosing to ID it! YES, this is for real, and has been reported in (mostly) the British media. THAT'S FREAKING CRAZY!
BUT... There is a REALLY big difference between China and the USA. Despite just how bad things are getting here (and really, compare it to the 60's and 70's, and things don't look nearly so bad, frankly), we still have movies like F9/11 get major national distribution, which then become the talk of the nation! We have dialogues like this! We can take part in major protests, we can vote for who we want, etc. etc. etc.
I know that with everything I talk about to other people directly and on the internet, with the protests I've been a part of, the shelf full of conspiracy-theory titles in my bedroom, with my unconventional spiritual views, with all of these things going for me -- I would NOT be a free man in China. Simple as that. In the USA, I do not fear being put away for my thoughts, plain and simple. Not yet, anyway. And frankly, I doubt it would happen any time soon.
China really is a blatant police-state, where people get arrested for saying some pretty tame stuff on web sites, where there are only state-sanctioned religions... It really is a total Big Brother fascism. I don't care how PC you want to be, but that's a fact. Just because they didn't utterly fail meeting the needs of their people in such a way that North Korea has, doesn't mean they aren't pretty much the same deal.
The fact that Saddam is considered public enemy number 1 because of political reasons that made sense to the Bush administration right now, and China is our most favored trading partner, shows how utterly vile and hypocritical the USA is, when it comes to seeking profit over what is right and wrong.
The fact that I can share this message with all my fellow Americans and even be reading this web site allows me to, in spite of this, still be proud to be an American.
"What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"
The way I understood it when it was explained to me at a telephone switching center was that everything after the first 2 digits of the number you dial gets logged, specifically the network source and destination, time and other goodies which had to be held for 7 years...
Granted they coulda been pulling my leg, but given the offices that I had been in, it seemed pretty viable..
Time to start rot13ing them SMSes?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I share these views, at least in part. As a European I cannot see why the USA still call themselves the "land of the free". With something like the Patriot Act in effect I wouldn't call a country free anymore. Maybe your threshold is lower, by for me the USA have crossed the line between an acceptably free country and one that isn't.
But maybe America is not about freedom anymore but instead about keeping it's role as the world's only superpower, which is slowly withering away with Europe and China gaining strength and self-confidence.
Concerning "Proud not to be an American": I'm not proud, but I'm happy. Wouldn't want to live over there now.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
How any person could welcome self-enslavement so long as he has the satisfaction of knowing that his neighbor is enslaved as well is beyond me.
No problem, as long as they have an ideology they believe in and/or a charismatic leader. Those two turned normal people into sadistic killing machines over here in no time flat. The people over here were no more aggressive than everyone else, but with an ideology that offered easy answers to complex problems, lots of complex problems to choose from and a little guy who was one hell of an orator it was no problem to set half of the world on fire.
Here is Germany, the time was the 1930s and -40s.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
If the Chinese people decided to revolt against the current structure, then I'd like to think that they could call on the armies of the world if needs be.
Helping people free themselves from their governments (when invited) would truly be a great use of the army/navy/R.A.F.
Though it would probably start off WW3.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
We're talking about the Motion Picture Association of America. America. They probably can't tell apart China, Japan and New Zealand.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
1.the CIA used to be prevented from spying on US citizens, not the NSA.
...), potential legal issues if their information is used in a criminal investigation , and to preempt inter-departmental turf wars by clearly defining the boundaries.
2.Patriot act I and II (which was quietly approved on the day that we announced the "capture" of Sadaam) stripped all that pretense away. Any
group is allowed to spy on us, with any group being (NSA, CIA, Fatherland Defense, and DOJ).
There's plenty of misbehavior to point at on both sides. But let's understand it.
From at least the mid '70s to about the mid '90s (as far as us outside the "security community" wall can tell) the breakdown was this:
- FBI was responsible for investigations involving interstate lawbreaking, kidnapping (assumed to involve intestate flight), and domestic security (including investigating spy rings and conducting security clearance investigations). Their operations often lead to prosecutions and are intermittently subjected to court scrutiny and on-the-record congressional investigation. So they must meet strong constitutional tests, or risk losing cases, injunctions, and civil-rights suits.
- CIA was responsible for spying and covert operation. Their operations are compartmentalized for security - which limits oversight and control - and are often outside the law in the areas where they operate. They were prohibited from operating inside the US at all - due to constitunal-authorization concerns, practical concerns (like coups, political sabotage,
- The NSA was charged with signals intelligence - both decoding to hunt for enemy action and protecting US communications - government, corporate, and personal - from foreign spying. As a side-effect they end up intercepting lots of private domestic communication content that the government isn't authorized to use. So they held it tightly (which also helped protect their methods) and dribbled it out pretty much only to the intelligence community (because a drop of it in a criminal case could blow the case). (Indeed, for decades the US claimed they didn't exist. Joke: NSA = No Such Agency.)
Info from NSA (apparently) fed mainly into CIA (which had the political/military implication analysis section). CIA would give info to FBI when appropriate, mainly stuff related to domestic spying and security clearances. (CIA and NSA info generally could NOT be used in criminal cases, because it's collected without probable cause or warrant. The constitutional protections would get stretched by using it to generate a "tip", telling the FBI where to look for something - but the info they developed had to come from open observation -> probable cause or warrants to be used in court.)
During the Clinton administration the wall between CIA and FBI was raised: ALL communication between them had to go up a bureaucratic red-tape chain and be handed over through a special office headed by a Clinton appointee (after approval by that office). The same set of Clinton administration officials came up with the idea that terrorism should be treated as a criminal offences rather than acts of war.
The result: No information was passed through the red-tape gauntlet from NSA and CIA to FBI. First fallout: The "nuclear secrets for campaign contributions" investigation was gutted (leading to leaks from frustrated agents.) (Some speculate that gutting this was the reason for the change.) Second fallout: Info about Bin Laden's activity didn't reach the FBI. The Clinton administration had several offers from Middle Eastern powers to hand over Bin Laden, which they turned down because the FBI couldn't make a criminal case against him. Third fallout: The mechanism hadn't been dismantled by 9/11.
The Bush administration went overboard the other direction. The Constitution's protections of the accused are relaxed in wars and the like - apparently because holding a trial in the middle of a battlefield is impractica
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Back in the days of telephone cables and communication satellites the NSA was tapping pretty much all communication in and out of the US.
Comsats were easy: Just point a big dish at 'em.
The transatlantic cable hit the coast and immediately took a microwave hop. NSA had a big instalation right under that hop. What a coincidence. (I'm not sure what they did about transPacific cables. But I'd be surprised if they weren't on the job.)
And now it has come out that one of the main jobs of the US nuclear sub fleet during the cold war was to tap Russian undersea cables - under the sea.
With the NSA tapping US and Russian communication, do you want to take any bets on other country's comm being tapped?
IMHO the only thing that's new is that pieces of it are leaking into the public news channels.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Hmmm -1 to zero? Now how is this 0 material. It refers to articles that cover the subject. And points out the reality of actual non-comercial SMS use. It makes a statement about the chinnese communist oligarcy.
It's moderated "overrated"
How is a normal post overrated. Overated moderation is for a post that has been modded up but doesn't deserve it in the Moderators opinion. The Moderator has (a) never read the guidelines (b) Is dishonest (c) drug addled. (d) am member of the Communist Chinnese Oligarchy. I am going for (b). I meta moderate everyday. I often leave posts unmoderated as I don't agree or dissageree with the moderation or just don't know. I know who ever moderated this needs to re read the moderation guidelines. If you don't know how to Mod don't
If my example of actual SMS text is true, and I think it is, it is mostly trivial stuff. How many actual "dissidents" are using them to organize and spread political rumors? I bet zero. These people know they are being monitired and use less dectable methods. "Aunt Woo fell down. Come to the hospital soon." That message could mean something totally different if you wanted it to.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
Poor China, they have not yet learned the power of saying all oppressive government action is being done to "protect children." I realize they don't like to follow in the stead of America, but they are looking really bad by not doing so here. For example:
From the article:
The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign was aimed at cleaning up "pornographic, obscene and fraudulent" phone messages that have "infiltrated short messaging content."
Sounds evil and Orwellian right? Now read this:
The official Xinhua News Agency said the campaign was aimed at protecting children from "pornographic, obscene and fraudulent" phone messages that have "infiltrated short messaging content."
Wow that sounds nice! What type of person, other than an evil child-molesting pedophile, could possibly be against that? Nobody, not in the US and not in China. I hope Beijing reads this message and takes my advice, as I would hate to see any oppressive government look worse than it has to. Yes, indeed. A totalitarian regime can get away with damn near anything by saying its merely protecting the children from it.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Okay...this is just a thought. I appreciate the concepts of personal freedom, I understand the US has it's own methods of both allowing and taking away personal freedoms and such...but....
what can be done to give myself more personal freedom and/or more individual "ownership of myself" without costing some kind of major conveniences?
but where will you get your oil?
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Exhibit A: An article entirely about government censorship in China instantly turns into a contest to see who can say "the US is worse" most convincingly.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
"What next, a massive government database system to track every message and contacts between people?"
Don't you mean orkut?
Now that the Supreme Court (and other Federal judiciary positions) have been packed with "right wing morons" (to quote a National Lampoon skit, Mission Impeachable) by Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, there's effectively only one branch to the Federal government.
Add to that the cheerleading of the So Called Liberal Media to make sure the people are properly propagandized and pretty soon we won't have a situation much different than the one in China. Except here we serve Freedom fries while the commie Chinese still serve French fries.
Debunking the "59 Deceits"
The old guard seems to fear the cultural changes taking place in their country as their youth are becoming more independant.
But amid growing concern that it is losing touch with an increasingly rebellious youth, the government recently announced a series of steps to bolster social, ethical and moral standards among underage Chinese...
Premier Wen Jiabao set the tone in late February with State Council Document No. 8 -- cited as the most important statement on youth since the Communists swept to power in 1949 -- calling on parents, teachers and the government to help strengthen and reform the virtue of Chinese minors.
The government has also banned the release of new foreign films during the school break this summer and tightened restrictions on foreign textbooks, cellphone text messaging, the Internet and racy magazines aimed at teens. It is recruiting new "upstanding youth" to serve as role models. And it is pouring money into "Youth Palaces," the national network of after-school community centers started in the 1950s to promote extracurricular activities.
they sold everywhere else in the world. That equipment just happens to come with features that allow censorship. (There are plenty of websites I can't visit at work.) Is Cisco suppose to boycott China themselves? Making the Internet more widely accessable in China is probably a better option. It's much to fashionable to reflexively blame the US.
Thanks, as was unapparent to the grandparent - I was poking fun at the industry's racism and racial insensitivity since the very beginning.
You may not remember but black people were played by white people in blackface until fairly recently and racism was rampant (funny the MPAA does like anyone to talk about that stuff) even as late as 1961 in the much beloved Breakfast at Tiffany's where Mickey Rooney plays an "Oriental",
in Seven year Itch (1955) Dorthy Ford plays an Indian Girl
Katharine Hepburn plays a Chinese girl in Dragon Seed
and the list goes on...
all the way up to, her wealthy, oblivious self and her (again) much beloved movie Racism in LiT
People don't realize it, but it is actually classism, but since we only see her distainful attitude towards Japanese common people (not all common people, when you are born a billionaire's dauther everyone is common) it ends up looking like racism.
So to spell it out for you - We at the MPAA are a bunch of racist, knee jerk reactionaries (remember blacklisting!) who are completely self obsessed and will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by fighting technology even though every technology we fight serves only to later be proven to have expanded our sphere of influence. Talkies, the Censorship Board, color film, tv, color tv, Betamax, VHS, DVD, IMDB, Back-to-Bacon, Filesharing, PVR, etc, etc.
Better?
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
It is for reasons like this that I have so much respect for a great president like Ronald Reagan, who, when he survived a bullet that came within an inch of his heart, decided that God wanted him to live for a reason, and he took charge and got rid of the Soviet Union. It's only too bad that Communism continues to exist in China and a few other places in the world.
Look at where they are, with their system based on violence, lies, and fear, and look at where we are, with our system based on freedom and personal responsibility.
Communism is the suxx0rz, and I think that as Americans, we should continue fighting it by refusing to send products, services, or business over there until they fall apart and become a system based on the premise that the individual is more important than some state, an entity of people in power who take advantage of it to enslave the individual, the way that China enslaves and polices its people.
Yes, America can!
You know what is worse than a fringe whacko left wing extremist? A fringe whacko left wing extremist that thinks he is mainstream. Unfortunately you fall into this category.
Let's get real here.. how many of the "chinese people" would a country require before taking action? 1%, 2%, 10%, 40%, 50%, 75%, 99%?
In the US war for independence, never more than 37% of the population supported the effort..
I reckon significantly more than 50%, say 70%. But it's not a black and white matter - the ultimate decision has to be made by a multinational body such as the UN. It's not something that could (or should) be decided by a single country anyway.
Allergy advice: Contains eggs.
it probably isn't as bad as your media makes out.
I visited China. Twice. And I would rather raise children in Shanghai than in New York City. They would be safer.
Imagine a country with severe budgetary restraints and a LOT of people. Recovering from hardcore communism and slowly and carefully moving towards getting the best for the country. Not for a select few, but also for the peasants in the countryside. Sure - not everything in China or it's political system is perfect, but the country looks pretty good compared to the US of A in a number of areas.
and it was while I was in a psychiatric ward in 2002. There was a Reverend Sterling I talked to in there that said Bush was behind the 911 attacks and was hiding Osama, etc. I wanted to talk to him more about it as he claimed he had proof, but about four security guards took him away to go to a different location.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Well, I, as a Chinese hacker, somehow participated in the SMS monitoring government project. I'm sorry I cant say too much about it. What I feel safe to say is (hope i'll not get arrested for this): 1. they're using Linux as the underlying platform; 2. I believe it's a shame for a Linux hacker to help government do such damned things with a free (as in freedom) OS, so I chose to leave both the company and the project. I also chose to post this anonymously, you should understand this.
*hangs head in shame* Actually, OverlordQ proves that it was fabricated in this comment: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=113324&thresho ld=-1&commentsort=3&tid=134&mode=nested&pid=959871 4
Big sorry. Talk about posting without thinking :(