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Google's China Problem
Wraithfighter writes "The New York Times has a rather lengthy, but informative, piece on the origins of Google's current Chinese search engine, as well as a very informative look at how censoring is actually done in China. From the article: 'Are there gradations of censorship, better and worse ways to limit information? In America, that seems like an intolerable question -- the end of the conversation. But in China, as Google has discovered, it is just the beginning.'"
I Want To Read The Fucking Article but I can't! Anyone wanna give some helpful insight?
They're already selling them cheap elsewhere I am in Latvia right now on a Fulbright. One of the "big" supermarkets in Riga sells DVDs for 1-2 lats. (1 lat = $1.75). I only get Latvian and Russian cable so I will take what I can get. Typical movies like: "The Chronicles of Riddick," "Underworld," "Resident Evil," etc. are one Lat. Latvia is an EU country so these are clearly NOT pirated. Of course the per capita income is lower than in the US but higher than China by far (no real piracy problem of course), the price is very reasonable locally since a movie, the opera, etc is about 10 Lats. I almost never buy DVDs in the U.S. because the price is not worth paying for a movie that might suck. I do not go to movies for the same reason. My local public library has a great selection of CDs risk free, however, and you can buy a whole season of something good (B5, CSI, etc.) for 40 bucks. Anyway, I have bought dozens of them since I arrived. The last time I bought a video in the U.S. was at least five ago. Since I can get used videos for five bucks in many places (or free at the library), why should I give the industry a penny more? Now they can make something from me -- since the prices are reasonable. As many have pointed out here, if they lowered the price (like that booze in the mini bar in the hotel), many people who do not buy would start buying and piracy would be pointless. Same principle as the boneheads who bitched about outlawing smoking in bars and then discovered that the young people and bar crowd still goes out but now so do the non smokers. Go figure.