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

I wonder whether the US government

[Chrisq]

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

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:I wonder whether the US government

[elrous0]

At *most* Congress will hold some show hearings, make a big production out of berating the Sony CEO briefly (during which he will offer the traditional "We're just following the law" defense), let a few Senators fire off some brief criticism of Sony, then completely forget about the whole thing and go on with business as usual. Sony will be briefly embarrassed, then continue on without a single change or reform.

Don't believe it? Just ask Jerry Yang if *HE* changed anything (or faced any real punishment) after getting this treatment.

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?

Rootkits

[RMH101]

At least Sony have lots of experience in shipping products with rootkits in them already.

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?

Apple Computers?

[n2art2]

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?

Re:China

[sakdoctor]

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!"

Green Dam Not Required

[Colonel Korn]

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.

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.