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China Bans Running Your Own Email Server
Erwin_D writes "Under the guise of banning spam, China has ruled that running your own e-mail server has been banned, unless you have a license. To qualify for such a license, an 'e-mail service provider' must abide by some chilling rules: all e-mail must be stored for two months, and e-mail with discussing vaguely defined subject as network security or information security may not be transmitted. While the rules contains all the good measures we would all like to see to combat spam, such as prohibiting open relays and outlawing zombie network, the law is also geared toward controlling free speech. From the article: 'I believe that the intent to have an antispam regulation was a good one ... Unfortunately, it seems like during the policy formulation process, it got hijacked and went to one extreme.'"
That's how it is in China. There are many, many people there who have no idea that Tienamen Square ever happened...
This shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone. Remember this Wikipedia Blocked
I'm not fat, just big boned...
Generally speaking...
I've only seen ISP's keep short term backups. ie, mail server storage method completely dies and then backups are restored. I'm not wholly sure how long the rest of the industry keeps these, but I never kept them past a few weeks.
Mail logs are generally kept for much longer...
Now, I think you are refering to the regulations that were pending/passed/speculated regarding business mail for large companies. This is taken from the company rather then the ISP. I believe there were some regulations for our corporate friends as they tend to have rather tasty emails.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Don't most ISPs in the western world have similar government imposed retention and intrusion legislation that they have to abide by?
I don't know about other governemnts, but there's certainly no data retention laws for ISPs in the United States. I'm not certain if email has been ruled to be covered by privacy laws, but I'd certainly hope so.
There's some requirements about email for publically traded companies through a new law called Sarbanes-Oxley. Even that I'm not sure if there's specific requirements for retention though.
The only data retention laws I know of in the US are actually on the Government itself. This information belongs to the people, and the government destroying it is seen as an afront to democracy. That's been the law of the land for a while.
AccountKiller
Because *THEY* keep financing *YOU*.
Anyone know how many US government T-bills and other securities are held in China?
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No. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China and operates independently of PRC law in all areas except foreign policy and defense. See http://www.gov.hk/
China and Japan have stopped buying US debt.
If the US Government can do it, I don't see why the Chinese can't monitor emails, IM, mobile phone calls, etc. I don't think anyone in China can believe that there's a safe medium for communication that the government won't tap.
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That got really butcherded in the editing room, I guess... I wrote:
For the vast majority of US households lucky enough to have better than dial up, the ISP forbids running "servers" of any kind. So there's no difference on that front except the penalties. In China, you will be put under then jail and your organs sold to the highest bidder for running anything like a press. In the US, right now, you will simply lose your connection to the network.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
since China nowadays allows foreign privately owned corporations to operate in the country, it is a modern globalized capitalist dictatorship
That just makes it a fascist dictatorship!
In case of fire, do not use elevator. Use water!
I don't know if I should laugh or cry when I hear this kind of oversimplified nonsense - it displays the same level of understanding as the average Hollywood movie's understanding of history, science and reality in general (ie. whatever sells the movie or sounds good in a slogan must be true).
Let's take Marx - he lived in an era where belonging to the working class meant that you were desperately poor, and where the middle and upper classes believed that different classes were almost different species; rich people in general would treat their dogs, cats and horses with more kindness and respect than they would a worker. This is the proper background for his ideas - in that age the only way to improve the conditions for the poorest people seemed to be violent revolution, and democracy certainly didn't seem to be something to rely on; it was only available to the top of society anyway. So the options seemed to be either the dictature of the wealthy or the dictature of the proletariat.
The problem with communism has never been that the ideas were wrong - only a heartless egotist would say that helping those in need is wrong, and only and idiot would say that there should be no restrictions in place for big business (unless you ARE one of those big businesses - only Microsoft thinks it is OK for Microsoft to be a monopoly). The real problem with communism has been that the writings of Karl Marx have been turned into a bible, a fundamental truth that can never, never change, and that has been seized by the reactionaries and is being used to promote a scary image of anything that smacks of limiting the profits of the few small segment of society that owns almost everything.
Meanwhile the communist idea has evolved and keeps evolving; the parts that are wrong, outdated or simply stupid are being thrown out and new parts come in. This is what you see in China - yes, they have some sort market economy and you can own property, but the system is fundamentally communism, a communism that evolves and improves. They are doing the right thing.