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Sony Begins Shipping PCs With Green Dam In China

Posted by kdawson on from the thought-the-good-color-was-red dept.

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."

7 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. China following Iran's lead by AnonGCB · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Or rather freaking out because they see what is happening in Iran and trying to set up a way to lock down any possible forms of dissent (even more than they already have).

    --
    http://CryoLANparty.com/ A lan I'm staff on!
  2. I wonder whether the US government by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder whether the US government will call for a bar on use of Sony within government.

    1. Re:I wonder whether the US government by houstonbofh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wonder whether the US government will call for a bar on use of Sony within government.

      I called for that bar after the CD Rootkit... And then again after the Secure USB rootkit. Now this. I am almost afraid to see how they top it.

    2. Re:I wonder whether the US government by gclef · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm quite curious if Sony has any liability here. The outcry has been pretty public, so it will be hard for Sony to say they were unaware of the claims of ownership by third parties. Does that make Sony's distribution of the software (presumably without permission of the people who had their code used in Green Dam) willful violation of copyright?

    3. Re:I wonder whether the US government by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I called for that bar after the CD Rootkit... And then again after the Secure USB rootkit. Now this. I am almost afraid to see how they top it.

      As a victim of XCP, I can't figure out two things:

      1. Why anyone would buy a product from a company that would deliberately include malware with their wares
      2. Why I get modded "flamebait" every time I bring up XCP?

      The "flamebait" mod doesn't annoy me, my karma is solid. It just puzzles me.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  3. Apple Computers? by n2art2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So does that mean that Apple will no longer be able to sell computers to China? Maybe they can install Vista in dual boot, and install Green Dam in Vista, and then just never run Vista.

    This brings up a interesting situation though. Is there a version of Green Dam for every OS, or will China authorize different web filtering software on other OSes?

    --
    Self proclaimed wannabe geek. You know how it is. Most of us who read this stuff probably fit in that category.
  4. That's irrelevant by Chrisq · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's irrelevant. I come from the UK too, and I the way things are going there is not enough difference to make it worthwhile them coming. They have more firewalls, but we have more listening, CCCTV cameras, numberplate recognition cameras, etc. The government can follow you here just as easily as in China.