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China's 'Green Dam' Software Program Near Collapse
katarn writes "Apparently domestic and international pressure, security vulnerabilities, and a $2.2B lawsuit over alleged stolen code have taken their toll on China's Green Dam software censorship program. Green Dam is a separate program from the 'Great Firewall of China,' which remains firmly in place. According to Green Dam program partners, funding for the project has not been renewed. The project development team has been shut down and the installation and aftercare team is facing closure. Unsurprisingly there has been no official comment from official Chinese authorities."
But now how will China go green?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Not only was it a 2.2b lawsuit, but it was brought on by US Software Firms.
US software firm sues China over Green Dam piracy
~Mekkah
Maybe they have commented, but it got censored.
I'll show myself out.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Actually, the government did try to respond, but unfortunately Green Dam blocked it. Some sort of obscenity issue, apparently.
Who handles these kinds of cases?
I seriously have no clue how international law (especially with copyrights) work.
Damn China damn green damn software sirs.
... the juicy novelization of what _really_ happened, by Cory Doctorow of course :-)
Plenty of puns to choose from for the title ("Damn, Green", the "Green and the Damned", "The new Dambusters").
Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
I hear Massachusetts is in the market for a green dam of their own - Bean Dam maybe. Perhaps they can sell it to MA.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/13/1837227/Massachusetts-Bids-To-Restrict-Internet-Indecency
Hope is the currency of fools
Maybe they can sell the project to massachusetts
To the best of my knowledge. these lawsuits have to be run through the World Trade Organization.
This is also where ie. someone like Google would sue over those intrusion attacks made by China a few months back.
~Mekkah
According to WIPO, China is a signatory, and the treaty is in force, which means there is domestic legislation in China, and it would be via this that I'm assuming software makers would be suing.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
because last year they already got enough money from the government. Now maybe the boss of the company is on a flight to Hawaii where he will enjoy that money on the beach.
Link is here: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=16
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Has there been any official comment from unofficial Chinese authorities?
Or unofficial comment from official authorities?
How about unofficial comment from unofficial authorities?
Although one wonders:
China can't do it because its so huge, but what about smaller countries like Canada, the US, Mexico or Brazil?
NO SIG
"According to Green Dam program partners, funding for the project has not been renewed. The project development team has been shut down and the installation and aftercare team is facing closure. Unsurprisingly there has been no official comment from official Chinese authorities."
Further, Green Dam project partners have been trying to get the development team on the phone for weeks, but just yesterday have been getting "Number not in service" recordings, and the mail and news papers have been collecting at the door of the development team office for months.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Does someone still have all those cute 'anime' style Green Dam Girl pics?
Failure really is not an option in China.
They should do the same as the cold war. The escalating western technology and innovation bankrupted the communists trying to keep up. Do the same with the Chinese. Databomb them until their institutions crumble from viruses and cyberattacks. We have the hackers; turn them loose. Only problem is, this time, we're the communists.
The project doesn't need funding; the developers will work for the good of the people. That's what Mao would have wanted, right? He was an OSS kind of guy.
With China's version of "Big Brother" pictures in every home and face-eating-rat cage rooms. That's what you get for trying to go "legit".
Good day brother!
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
How un-American of them...we'd just rotate contractors.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
It wasn't just a "US Software Firm" it was the infamous Solid Oak, the makers of Cyber Sitter. I just had someone's comp have Cyber Sitter version 10 (the version they ripped off to make Green Dam) blow itself up and removing manually it is an unbelievable pain in the ass. The LSP's regenerate themselves if all pieces of the software aren't deleted at the exact same time. So needless to say, it probably would have worked well which is why they stole it. The funny thing is, it's a pretty poorly rated program compared to others. They should have ripped off Net Nanny, the current highest rated internet filter. I think Cyber Sitter might be the hardest to remove though. The good news in all of this is maybe Cyber Sitter will get a sizeable chunk of that 2.2 billion and finally be able to afford some damn technical support! In fact, it's so awful and the product ratings are so far in the toilet, China stealing their code for Green Dam may actually save their entire company because they're not doing so well lately. Just thought that little back story on who's behind this might be interesting.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Things work like this in China, if the gov or most of times a particular person who is in charge want sth to be done, and done quickly, you do it as required,and once you grabbed all the money you leave, no one actually cares what happens after wards. No public enquirers will be allowed to question how the gov spent tax money since that info is considered as state secret. You probably know that if you steal a s/w and do some localization work won't cost 20m yuan.
Heck a beaver can build a dam for a LOT cheaper.
The Australian government spent $84 million trying to do something similar for our measly population and failed. Why should China be any different. Sadly, the Australian government knows that the great firewall works, so now they are biding their time until after the looming election when they will announce the the mere fact they were elected means that they have a mandate to ram internet filtering down our throats at who knows what cost. And the firewall will STILL totally fail to meet its stated goals. Australian Government = FAIL.