China Caves: Filtering Software "Optional"
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: China, Green, Dam, Porn, filter | Themes: The Internet
The Chinese government has announced that the Green Dam filtering software will be optional.
A Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official yesteday contacted the Associated Press and told them that while the Green Dam software will still be shipped on all computers in mainland China, Green Dam Youth Escort is 'not compulsory.'
While this is good news for Chinese computer users, it is still not known if the company who designed the software, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. will face legal action from a Santa Barbara-based company who alleges that Jinhui Computer System Engineering is using code from its CyberSitter software designed for use by parents who wish to restrict what their children do on the web.
Solid Oak says that among other things, Green Dam uses a list of terms to be blocked, instructions for updating the software and an old news bulletin promoting CyberSitter. Solid Oak founder, Brian Milburn said the company was considering legal action but told the Associated Press that it was unsure of what could be done since the offending company was based in China.
"I don't know how far you can try and reach into China and try to stop stuff like this," said Milburn.
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I asked earlier if it was to be an optional software and someone replied "if they took lesson from EA, no".
Well, here's my answer
So to conclude, this is no worst than AOL
it seemed to me that it was always optional seeing as they never stipulated that the new PC had to keep the OS installed that came with it.
I guess it won't be the complicated to disable then - probably even easier than needing to kill it through task manager.
I cannot remember who said this, but I believe they were right.
Economic freedom leads to social freedom. This would appear to be a step in that direction.
I cannot remember who said this, but I believe they were right.Economic freedom leads to social freedom. This would appear to be a step in that direction.
More like 10 steps back and a baby step forward. Still 9 and a half steps in the wrong direction.
Well, that's good. After all I'm sure they didn't have a Linux version so this certainly would have hurt China's Linux efforts. Interesting that a country that is sponsoring their own Linux distribution, which is built on the idea of freedom and independence from big US vendors, is so interested in lock down and censorship itself. Oh well.
I cannot remember who said this, but I believe they were right.Economic freedom leads to social freedom. This would appear to be a step in that direction.
Half the world's wealth is in the hands of 2% of the population, while half of the poorest of people live in countries that have enough natural resources but that wealth is not accessible to them.
That's economic freedom for you!
People should enjoy as much freedom as possible, corporations on the other hand shouldn't enjoy too much freedom, especially when they just absorb wealth without giving much back.
Yay, my snide sarcastic posts they never read did the trick!
Half the world's wealth is in the hands of 2% of the population, while half of the poorest of people live in countries that have enough natural resources but that wealth is not accessible to them. That's economic freedom for you!People should enjoy as much freedom as possible, corporations on the other hand shouldn't enjoy too much freedom, especially when they just absorb wealth without giving much back.
Damn right! Those guys that worked to build profitable companies don't deserve the profit. We should cap CEO pays and distribute it to the poor and the lazy. That will definitely help spur innovation. Knowing that I don't even need to try hard as long as someone else tries hard I can get some cash off of their hard work. Surely that will make me want to try harder. The prospect of having my money taken away from me and given to someone less "fortunate" makes me get out of bed!
Failed at record speed I see
Failed at record speed I see
Innovation and creativity is great, what I hate is when their product/market matures and they sit on top of what they made, and using legal means to stop others from improving their products and thus offering competition and choices for the consumer. Chances are, when people say dirty corporate policy they don't mean companies that continue to refine their products, and have open competition and is bringing more and more product out the door everyday, but they mean companies that offer miner updates or offer up half baked products and flog it as fully usable. The top 2% of wealth isn't gotten in one day, but how much of that is gotten because of hard work and innovation, and how much of it is because of a legacy and people's unwillingness to change?
Your perspective seems to exclude the existence of entire continents full of hard working, borderline slaves.
I do wonder though, do you include in "those guys" 3rd-5th generation trust fund legacy babies? It might destroy your perception of the world, but unfortunately, with each passing generation we see a class of modern day royals continue to consolidate wealth. I only wish we existed in a meritocracy where every rich successful CEO/leader/etc was self made through hard work.
I sorta didn't expect this to happen, guess China is not that f'd after all.
I don't understand why they're posting about freedom above... but I believe that right and access to valuable information is freedom.
Entities restricting people access to it is controlling or preserving power they had. I've never seen or experience something liberating since the internet.
It was said that the software was optional from Kevin Parrish's first article on this subject (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/China-Green-Dam-Filter,news-4048.html)
Jane, what is it that you do every day? Looking cute?
They will probably put up a law that says if you dont use it you will be "disciplined" instead of computers having to mandatorily run the program.
Betcha almost everyone will be removing the "optional to use" filtering software.
Win for China.