Slashdot Mirror
China Delays "Green Dam" Internet Filter
SailorSpork sends in a BBC report that "China is delaying a controversial plan requiring all new computers sold in the country to be equipped with an Internet filtering software, state media says. The filter, called Green Dam Youth Escort, was to have been required from Wednesday, but the ministry of industry said computer makers needed more time." The submitter adds: "Except of course for Sony, who as reported earlier lacked the moral fiber to hold off installing the spyware, which reportedly is ridden with security holes and uses stolen code. Sony actually managed to ship ahead of the schedule."
"Green Dam",
Total sham.
Real security:
Green eggs and ham.
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Well, Sony finally manages to get SOMETHING out on time. Too bad God of War 3 wasn't requested by an evil totalitarian regime to oppress its people.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The filter, called Green Dam Youth Escort
Filters are censorship. But, if implemented correctly, they're one of the most innocuous forms of censorship. I was initially lead to believe that Green Dam Youth Escort was community driven:
In 2008, under instructions from political leaders, the MIIT implemented a "community-oriented green open Internet filtering software project" with the support of the Central Civilisation Office and the Ministry of Finance. Its aim was to build a "green, healthy network environment, to protect the healthy growth of young people".
Trials commenced in Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Lanzhou, and Xi'an in October 2008 after the ministry negotiated with the software suppliers and 50 web portals to make the software publicly available without charge, and more than 2,000 installations took place. Trials rolled out to 10 more cities, including Chengdu, Shenyang, Harbin, and Qingdao. The ministry claimed that by December 2008, the software had been downloaded more than 100,000 times, and 3 million times since the end of March 2009. Five leading PC vendors in mainland China, Founder, Lenovo, Tongfang, Great Wall and HEDY, also participated in trial installations.
Ok, no biggie. We've got Spamhaus, right? That's a community censorship project against something we don't want--spam! And I love it. But Green Dam Youth Escort seems to be passing the boundaries of what a "filter" does:
According to the Epoch Times, hackers in China had accessed the keyword library and administrative codes, revealing only 2,700 keywords relating to pornography, and over 6,500 politically sensitive keywords which included '4 June', 'Tibet' and 'Falun Gong'. Chinese users of the software have apparently found that it injects a DLL file into Internet Explorer that prohibits the usage of FreeGate, one of the programs commonly used to bypass the Golden Shield Project.
Alright, swapping out a dynamically linked library is transcending a "filter" ... or any label we've invented so far. I must have missed the reports on that but that's pretty shocking to me. If I had to dub this anything it'd be 1984ware.
My work here is dung.
I've been Sony-Free since about 2004. I purchase no products, services, or media that allows Sony to profit.
It's a pain in the ass since Sony owns patents and rights on a huge amount of computer hardware that people take for granted these days. However, I've made a game out of it, carefully researching all my purchases beforehand to make sure they don't contain any Sony parts or licenses.
There are lots of reasons to boycott Sony. Why not join me over this one?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Nerds love to tout their "moral superiority" over everyone else.
Anyone remember the CD rootkits?
Yeah, call it a crazy theory and call me cynical for thinking that Chinese government wants even more control over the citizens, but the exploit found allowed an attacker to remotely control any system running the software. My guess the coders need more time to "fix" that issue and implement another hole for the government to take even more control.
According to all reports that I've read Sony did not install the program, merely placed the executable on the computer to meet the governments requirements. Sounds like a smart compromise to me.
So I'm thinking of starting a fund to raise money and get Slashdot a dictionary. Who's in?
not sure i'd be pushing for my kids to have an escort... besides they're harder to find with craigslist now lol
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
"Green Dam is the alleged predecessor to a larger and more invasive firewall nicknamed, 'God Damn.'"