China Requiring Filters on PCs
According to the New York Times, China will soon require PC manufacturers to provide machines with pre-installed "Green Dam" software that "blocks" harmful websites.
The country already filters out certain websites as it is, especially those pertaining to the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, anything related to the Dalai Lama, and the crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters back in 1989. The new software will take Internet filtering to the next level by weeding out pornography and what China considers "unhealthy information."
Beginning July 1, the government will have the ability to update new PCs with a list of banned websites, and will refresh the list with new additions similar to distribution methods used by Symantec and McAfee. “This is a very bad thing,” said Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society, an advocacy group in Hong Kong. “It’s like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy.” Free-speech advocates are also in an uproar, afraid that the new software will filter out access to uncensored news and information provided within and outside China.
The company behind the Green Dam software said that it was designed to filter out sexually explicit images and words. Computer experts think differently, and believe that the government will gain access to personal information and have the ability to monitor Internet use through the software. Many American PC manufacturers are already on red alert, claiming that there was no consultation or advance warning from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the government branch that actually issued the directive. There's even speculation that the software is actually a government-controlled Trojan horse built for greater Internet control.
However, Zhang, Chenming of Jinhui Computer System Engineering, one of the creators behind the Green Dam software, said that the concerns were overblown. The sole purpose of Green Wall is to neutralize programs designed to override China's "Great Firewall," and nothing more. He even added that end-users can actually turn off Green Wall, or delete the program altogether. "A parent can still use the computer to go to porn," he added.
Currently the government-funded Green Dam software is available as a free download from the official website, enabling existing PC users to obtain the same service offered by new PC owners after July 1. So far, the program has been downloaded 3.2 million times, however the New York Times said that the overall number includes thousands of schools that were required to download Green Dam before the end of May. According to the official Green Dam website, Lenovo, Inspur, and Hedy signed on to install the software on 52 million new computers.
American engineers have already dissected the software, describing it as "technically flawed," and can even crash PCs. End-users leaving comments on the Green Wall website expressed their negative opinions of the sketchy software, complaining that pornography still slipped through the software's defenses, and that the program even slowed down their computers. “It seems pretty lousy so far,” read one posting. “It’s not very powerful, I can’t surf the Internet normally and it’s affecting the operation of other software.” But, like any other government cover-up, most of the comments had been deleted by Monday night.
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Awesome another form of control against their people. This makes me wished I lived in china...... Not.
LOL China is flucked !!! Wouldnt want to be in China after July 1. No more porn for China , omg wont that bankrupt the porn industry???
Awesome!
I'm gonna get me a copy!
You know those people that are so flawed it's impossible to pick out their worst quality? I feel that way about China's government.
History- lost
Human rights-violated
I should go on, but you get the point
They will just go back to shagging there kids and leaving the girls in dying rooms.
uhh... just install Linux?
It's not like this software won't have a ton of loopholes for even the not so tech savy to easily bypass
How is this news...
China control is way to strict and lying all the time about what their intentions are. Any news about China is most often about them doing something to gain more control over their citizens and control the flow of information.
i love their movies, food, and the people i have met.
to bad about their repressive goverment.i think they are in need of a new revolution as their goverment is probably worse than the one it originallly overthrew.
How isn't this news...
i love their movies, food, and the people i have met.to bad about their repressive goverment.i think they are in need of a new revolution as their goverment is probably worse than the one it originallly overthrew.
Hopefully they don't start "filtering" out people with "bad" information.
Just use Linux with a nice little VM for your Green Damned environment. It's like having a little pet spyware in it's own little box.
It's worth noting that Microsoft "complies with the local laws in the countries it does business in..." Which means that in China MS enables the gov't to spy on it's citizens and censor content, whereas in the US, it just means spy on citizens and leave 1,000,000 backdoors to the system. Linux shows us just how easy it is not to allow remote execution of code, period, end of discussion, either Microsoft is incompetent, or it "complies with US laws"...
It's a free download to restrict yourself from the Internet, allow the government to watch what you do and keep records on it?
Wow, that's next on my list of things to do when I want to kill myself.
It's a free download to restrict yourself from the Internet, allow the government to watch what you do and keep records on it?Wow, that's next on my list of things to do when I want to kill myself.
Heheh I agree, when I slash my wrists I am so going to go download Green dam and itunes and maybe some britney spears songs. Might as well go out with your ears bleeding your mind reeling and your computer dying.
Just do a fresh install of a real OS copy.
Nothing better to get rid of all that bloatware preinstalled.
"I swear, the only reason I got rid of your monitoring was because I ran out of ram!"
How is this news...
...are you serious?!?
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The general reaction is "how evil and oppresive", and I agree.
However, would you say that blocking a child's access to porn is the wrong thing to do? Do you believe that the USA doesn't have its own set of legal code that deals with what is considered moral and decent, making other things illegal (especially for children)? Finally, do you think the US government doesn't keep tabs on its citizens more carefully since 9/11?
My point isn't to say the USA does questionable actions and thus we should let China do it also - my point is sometimes we need to stand up for rights in our home countries as well as put the light of injustice on foriegn nations.
I do wonder if the proxy services that let people get around the Chinese firewall has anything to do with their targeting the physical systems of users.
Of course, manufacturers will easily fold on this issue and install the software. Economies of scale - when there are two nations that are an order of magnitude bigger than most other foriegn markets and their economies are rapidly growing, you can't affort to ignore them. After all, a company's first responsibility is to earn a profit for shareholders, not base decisions on something as "silly" as ethics or morality.
Most countries in the world are just as guilty as China or any other country when coming to monitoring their citizens. Falun Gong is classified as some sort of a terrorist organisation in China much the same as Al Qaeda in US. I live in Australia and I have a Muslim looking friend who gets search left right and centre every time he leaves or enters Australia. Where's the fairness in that? You can't carry metal butter knife onto a plane but u can with lights so you can smoke as soon as you get off the plane? China should do whatever they do, in the end, if too many people disagree, the government will get overthrown.
This is why the Chinese are not officially human: they deny that they have free will. In my mind, chinese are dogs and nothing more.
hei,marcusmiller360, in your mind your mam are also bitch dog and nothing more
Do you believe that the USA doesn't have its own set of legal code that deals with what is considered moral and decent, making other things illegal (especially for children)?
Lol... it reminds me of monkey island when one of the possible replies was: "but what about the children?"... "what about them?"... "I dunno. I just thought I'd ask."
This is sad. Why don't they disconnect from the Internet and simply make a nation-wide WAN?
China seems to be the land of the walls...Remember the chinese wall that never got finished?
They spend so many years building it, and on european and American soil, that wall became worthless in a matter of 20 years with the invention of the plane!
The great china firewall was not able to stop tunnel clients, so what's next? A big brother software! Well, it is supposed to be very easy to disable or circumvent too!
But what do these chinese guys know? They still live in the stone age, proud to have 'invented' papyrus and firecrackers!
But their industry is just a big mess... A pitty the common worker is the dupe of a bad government!
On the other hand crime is way lower there than in USA. There's a limit to how much freedom and control we need to have!
And only God knows that limit for each individual!
This is why the Chinese are not officially human: they deny that they have free will. In my mind, chinese are dogs and nothing more.
What evidence do you have to support the existence of freewill? We don't have some magical ability to choose that other beings don't have.
Do you believe that the USA doesn't have its own set of legal code that deals with what is considered moral and decent, making other things illegal (especially for children)?
I do, and I think it shouldn't. Law should be based on evidence, evidence that the law will be beneficial, not based on morals which may or may not have any basis in reality.
Live your life by your morals, don't force them on others.
in my mind, you just a bitchass dog who barks everytime you near a hairy balls
Lol... it reminds me of monkey island when one of the possible replies was: "but what about the children?"... "what about them?"... "I dunno. I just thought I'd ask."
in my mind, you just a bitchass dog who barks everytime you near a hairy balls
This is why the Chinese are not officially human: they deny that they have free will. In my mind, chinese are dogs and nothing more.
Most countries in the world are just as guilty as China or any other country when coming to monitoring their citizens. Falun Gong is classified as some sort of a terrorist organisation in China much the same as Al Qaeda in US. I live in Australia and I have a Muslim looking friend who gets search left right and centre every time he leaves or enters Australia. Where's the fairness in that? You can't carry metal butter knife onto a plane but u can with lights so you can smoke as soon as you get off the plane? China should do whatever they do, in the end, if too many people disagree, the government will get overthrown.
umm i highly doubt teh Falun gong is a terrorist group , china's gioverment also considers budhist a terrorist group , have you ehard of a buddhist that goes around kiling poeple, they are the worlds's first hipy religion , so i doubt china's claims that teh falun gong is a terrorist likely tehy are jsut anoterh apssive ressistance group that the chinese goverment wants to shut up. the Chinese goverment are teh terrorist
umm i highly doubt teh Falun gong is a terrorist group , china's gioverment also considers budhist a terrorist group , have you ehard of a buddhist that goes around kiling poeple, they are the worlds's first hipy religion , so i doubt china's claims that teh falun gong is a terrorist likely tehy are jsut anoterh apssive ressistance group that the chinese goverment wants to shut up. the Chinese goverment are teh terrorist
get your facts right, none of the bs you said is true. Buddhism is the main religion in China. As a chinese, this piece of shit software is not going to change our daily life. just like we not allow to have firearms, we just have to deal with it. shame we can't start a massacre in school like the americans
have you ehard of a buddhist that goes around kiling poeple, they are the worlds's first hipy religion
Your knowledge of Buddhism appears to be on the same level of your knowledge of English.
Plenty of people have died, and killed in the name of various sects of Buddhism, but it's an old religion, so by the time western civilization became aware of it, Buddhism was pretty docile.
who cares what China government does in it's own country. Let the citizens decide the quality of life they want to live
Basically, if the Citizens are happy with a lousy standard of living do to their oun government selling them on the cheep to geedy corporate big heads from europe and USA, than thats fine by me. Just means those same big heads will force the chinese government to support europe and US economies so those countries receiving support will keep buying stuff. lol
what a tangled web us humans weave.
Sorry China has over 1 billion people and the PROFITS hardware companies can make from that are more important then your humanity rights.