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100 Million Online in China
Colin Smith writes "Rising levels of personal wealth in the nation of China means that the country now has over 100 million internet users, and the authorities are discovering just how difficult it is to place a dam against information in the digital age." From the article: "Only last week, the authorities threatened to shut down websites and blogs that failed to register with regulators in a new campaign to tighten controls on what the public can see online. The so-called Great Firewall of China is constantly being breached as citizens and the authorities play a cat and mouse game with the flow of information."
I would guess slashdot is one of the sites blocked in China. Is this correct? Anyone here from China?
legally? No. But we're talking ethics here, right? Commerce and Ethics do not abide. Least, not concerning US compaines.
Also, if they can't *view* certain websites, what's keeping them from using a proxy (possibly an open proxy list) within their web browser to circumvent China's methods of blocking?
One would think that they can only block items for so long until their methods are circumvented. After all, where there's a will, there's always a way. Sounds like a huge cat and mouse game indeed.
Content Management System: A pretentious way of saying "text editor."
If China becomes a dominant presence on the internet, I wonder when Chinese tech standards will become de facto standards for the net. Much as developers design for IE currently (regardless of the "issues" with IE), I wonder if future developers will target Chinese compatibility first, and ignore other de facto or de jure standards.
Does anyone know if China is adopting/promoting DRM (perhaps for content control), open standards (to avoid U.S.-centric Microsoft technology), IPv6, or other internet-affecting standards.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Why not? IBM sold punch card machines to the Nazi's, which were used to track down Jews. It's the duty of capatilists to sell China the rope they are going to hang us with.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
the Chinese government is trying to stop a river with pebbles. What happened to the visionary leaders that opened up their market so they won't have the Soviet Union's fate? How long do they think they can buy time before information becomes utterly loose on their "kingdom"?
Damn it folks! You can not stop progress! You can only impede it but never stop it! Get over it! You should either reform or perish! Do the Chinese Party commissars have to take history lessons anymore?
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
Interesting point on your RIAA comment: When I was in China and Hong Kong in 2000, I noticed that there were no legal DVDs of movies or CDs of artists to buy. At the time the big media conglomerates in the U.S. realized that the Chinese were not willing to pay full price for products. Those trading illegal copies weren't actually costing the companies a sale, but getting their products exposure.
Because of this, MGM et al decided to license VCD copies of their movies to be produced and distributed at about 10% above the going rate for the pirated copies (the equivalent of about 1 USD). So for literally pennies more, you got a clean copy that was (almost always) guaranteed to work and was properly subtitled instead of a shoddy pirate copy. The companies realized that to capitalize on a massive market, they had to compete at a level they were not accustomed to dealing with in the U.S. and Europe.
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You CAN'T control what people think. You CAN'T control the urge to know. You CAN'T make people believe something is bad just because you say it is bad. You have to provide convincing evidence.
For example, over in Denmark in the 1970s they dropped most restrictions regarding pornography. After 30 years, the nation did NOT turn into a gang of rapists. They probably mentally filter out billboards featuring naked people just like they filter out any other uninteresting advertising. So, where is the evidence to support Chinese government (or any other government) claims of bad things associated with pornography? It's in the unnecessary restrictions! Forcing it underground just makes it more interesting ("I want to see what they don't want me to see, to find out why they don't want me to see it!"). Exposing it takes away that incentive, and people tend to ignore what not's immediately relevant. A curb of freedom is ALWAYS immediately relevant!
Now, you CAN influence what people do with what they know. Does the Chinese Constitution have any mechanism whereby it might be Amended, like the U.S. (and other) Constitutions? If not, then whatever curbs of freedom built into the Chinese Constitution will eventually and inevitably boil over into an ugly revolution. The leadership over there is going to find out, one way or another, just what The People can do. So, they can either plan on an England-like open system (which started with the Magna Charta), or they can keep a France-like repressive system (which ended with beheadings).
This gives me an interesting (not saying it's good ;-) idea. Someone should write a wikipedia text reader that can be called from skype. Then the Chinese could call it and get the information they want directly.
Slashdot is not blocked in China. I am a Chinese. I am visiting slashdot from China right now. any other sites are.