Slashdot Mirror
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."
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!
I wonder whether the US government will call for a bar on use of Sony within government.
At least Sony have lots of experience in shipping products with rootkits in them already.
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?
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.
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?
It would make more sense for you to boycott anything make in China, rather than anything made by Sony.
I live in China and just got a new Eeepc this morning. While I was shopping around most of the salespeople and shop owners made a point of saying that none of their computers had Green Dam installed.
This is just another policy that some old fogey in the propaganda department or MIIT thinks is good for "the people" but it is absolutely impossible to implement. Hell, I had to shop around and eventually ended up ordering a XP version online because everyone local said they all just bought Linux versions and installed Windows, Office, and whatever for free.
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.
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.
Our notions of freedom and democracy are right for the rest of the world, because they are best for the individual people of this world.
Whether they know it or not.
Take North Korea for example. You probably know that the general population believe, that the outside world is a nightmare of poverty, war and starvation.
Those who have managed to escape in desperation over the border into China, see the piles of rice sacks and fruit on the street and are like, "WTF! We've been F'ing lied to all our lives!"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_internet_4
14 mins ago
BEIJING â" China's state media says the government will postpone enforcement of a new rule mandating all new computers be sold with a filtering software.
The rule was to go into effect starting Wednesday, but the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report late Tuesday that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had decided to delay the plan. It did not say why or give any other details.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
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.
Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
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.
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.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
UltraSurf is a free software which enables users inside countries with heavy Internet censorship to visit any public web sites in the world safely and freely. Users in countries without internet censorship also use it to protect their internet privacy and security. With UltraSurf started, you can use web browsers (like IE, Firefox) the same as before, but all are under UltraSurf's protection now. Latest version UltraSurf 9.5 (.zip) -- include "Green Tsunami" to remove "Green Dam"
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.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
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?
Free Martian Whores!