Sony Begins Shipping PCs With Green Dam In China

Dotnaught writes "Sony is now shipping computers in China with Green Dam installed, in advance of the Chinese government's July 1 deadline. But the company is disclaiming responsibility for any damage caused by the Web filtering software. Documents posted by Hong Kong-based media studies professor Rebecca MacKinnon also suggest that the Chinese government is considering similar filtering requirements for mobile phones."

Comments

Re:China following Iran's lead

[Opportunist]

Then it would only be logical to demand that Sony be excluded from government contracts akin to Siemens and Nokia. Or are we scared to piss off the people that basically already own a good portion of the US trade market?

China

[matt328]

Why do people still live there again? Seriously though, I wonder what the morale of people who live there is like? Do they all hate it but have nowhere else to go, or are they just culturally complacent with their rights being trampled on?

Re:China

[emocomputerjock]

I can't claim credit for it as someone else on /. already said it, but who is to say that our western notions of freedom and democracy are right for the rest of the world?

Re:China

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Actually, they really don't have anywhere to go. Ask a Chinese citizen how difficult (nearly impossible) for anyone but the uber rich to get a visa to travel to a "first world" country.

Oh, and there is indeed a high degree of complacency about government control/meddling in their everyday lives. Mei ban fa.

Re:China

[Chrisq]

Why do people still live there again?

1) What country do you live in?
2) would you be willing and able to take 1.3 billion refugees?

Re:China

[m.ducharme]

While I'm inclined to agree with you, there is an inherent danger in your position. You can't "force" freedom and democracy on a people, it doesn't work well. And if they don't know that freedom and democracy are best for them, interfering in their country's internal politics amounts to forcing freedom on them. Also, though your North Korea example is probably fairly accurate, I would say that the Chinese probably have a more sophisticated view of their government and what it does (and what they're willing to tolerate). Neither country is anything like Iran, where the people are very ready to overthrow their government, so much so that it's not a matter of if, but when they'll finally do it.

The West, and the US in particular, have difficulty seeing the distinctions between these kinds of nations, and tragedy has too often been the result of this short-sightedness. Take for example Afghanistan, where the US has overthrown the Taliban, and subsequently the Warlords have taken over and started most of the same repressive crap. Or Iraq immediately after the first Gulf war, when Iraqis, thinking they would have aid from the US, rose up against Saddam Hussein and were slaughtered by the thousands because the US stayed out of it. When it comes to achieving freedom for your people, timing is everything.

Re:China

[Midnight Thunder]

Oh, and there is indeed a high degree of complacency about government control/meddling in their everyday lives. Mei ban fa.

Sounds like the citizens of China are like the citizens in most other places. Remember only a small handful of people made much noise about the warrant-less wire-tapping, for example.

Re:China

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent has to be a troll...

America was founded to give citizens more rights and freedoms, not less. The right to privacy is one that is quickly disappearing in this new technological era, though it's no surprise. The populace is too engaged in gadgets and gizmos, and celebrity goings-on to notice (or maybe care?) what is being done in the name of "safety and security". All this in a time when the education system is failing miserably when compared to other first-world countries.

I don't remember being asked to vote on whether or not I can be warrantless wire-tapped. There's lots of rights that have been taken away without asking the people what they think. They're simply told "This is for your own good."

Face it, our government looks for any excuse to take freedoms away, because there's big money in it.
Without new laws to break, there'd be no need for additional police, lawyers, judges, prison guards, and buildings to put those people in.
Without a need to tax citizens to pay for all of those services then there'd be less taxes, and subsequently less of a pool to steal from. Who's gonna pay for all the $350 hammers?

The mindset for American citizens going on about their daily lives isn't that far off from those of the people in the countries you've mentioned.
"Do what the men in charge tell you is OK, or else!"
In our country the "or else" is being locked away in cage and forcibly anal raped by someone who probably (statistically speaking) has AIDS. While it may not be as bad as the death penalty for breaking any law, it's not much better.

Also, I've never met anyone who's goth and emo. They're two different sociological groups. Well done lumping them all together into a single group you can hate, since they don't think/act/dress like you.

Re:China

[Rocketship Underpant]

I'm not sure about that. Chinese tourism (i.e. regular Chinese folks going abroad) is growing so rapidly they will soon eclipse the other major oubound-tourist countries, and they are already in fifth place when counting money spent on tourism abroad. I suspect the bigger trouble is finding countries that will give them visas. It's exceptionally difficult for nearly anyone to visit the US, and not just the Chinese.

Re:Boycot Sony.

[Anonymous Coward]

It would make more sense for you to boycott anything make in China, rather than anything made by Sony.

Re:Boycot Sony.

[houstonbofh]

That basically settles it for me - I won't buy a sony product until things like this stops.

What, the two other rootkits were not enough for you? And yes, the fact that they got away with them is probably the reason that this has them not at all worried.

Re:I wonder whether the US government

[Bakkster]

I'd say there's a crucial difference. In the case of Iran, the technology is an export of oppressive technologies to an oppressive regime. In China's case, Green Dam is an internal program (supposedly) developed by Chinese coders. Regardless of how oppressive the program is (very oppressive), Sony is not developing it.

This doesn't make it alright or a good thing, but China would install this stuff on PCs either way. In the case of Iran, without foreign technology they would not have been able to filter internet transmissions.

Re:Boycot Sony.

[Anonymous Coward]

Phew, thankfully I just bought a laptop recently and it wasn't a Sony.

It was a Lenovo Thinkpad, they're only partially owned by the Chinease government. That makes it better, right?

Re:Sorry, but no.

[mcgrew]

For every person who is silenced, imprisoned and killed due to censorship from the content you ship, there is blood on your hands.

Why would a corporate mammon-worshiper care?