"Drop the filtering software Now or else.." by US's Ron Kirk

Lundblad.Jeff said:

This new software is perhaps the worst PR China has gotten in recent years. I do believe it is intended to filter porn, but there is no telling what else it could be used for. It's a terrible idea on a number of fronts, first, Green Dam got the contract no bid from the Chinese government. Second, CCTV ran a phony demonstration of google's alleged porn search suggestions with a young student who showed how easy it was for him to get porn and how it ruined his life. It was later revealed that the student was actually a CCTV intern.

Then, to top it off, the software has numerous security flaws....and part of its code is claimed to be copied from another software firm.

It just cant get much worse than this. China's government should back down. It will not prevent protests against the CCP.If anything, it will make people more likely to subvert the government.

Click to expand...

The thing is foreigners are in NO position to tell the chinese what's good for them regardless whether it's software, human rights, food, drink, the type of shoes they should wear, the color of their underwears or whatever.

On the flipside average western teenagers spend too much time watching porn and they are not good at science, programming, and engineering.

Click to expand...

Are you implying viewing porn leads to decreased ability to conduct research, programming, or engineering?

Come on now, in extreme cases you have the porn addicts, but I doubt the average American teen spends more than twenty to thirty minutes a day viewing pornographic material.

Are the foreign computer manufacturers being forced to pay a royalty for the filtering software, or is it free?

cmb=1968 said:

Are the foreign computer manufacturers being forced to pay a royalty for the filtering software, or is it free?

Click to expand...

Chinese end users will pick the bill.

There are studies that say Green Dam is very intrusive. It tracks your email, your iM messages, your favorite websites. Don't assume this is only going to be used to filter porn. It can be used to track anything from those with differing political views, to those who post pictures of Chinese military stuff.

There are ways to deal with porn, but this is not the right way.

Chinese users are expressing themselves, calling this an epic fail.

Popeye would go crazy and pull his hair out if those chinese porn spamming bots invade SDF

Click to expand...

Porn spam bots!?? I'd murder em'!!:nono:

I hope that never happens. We get enough spammers trying to sell computers, games, cell phones, shoes & clothing etc..Plus the occasional porn or "dating" site spammer. I crush em' all..:nono:

crobato said:

There are studies that say Green Dam is very intrusive. It tracks your email, your iM messages, your favorite websites. Don't assume this is only going to be used to filter porn. It can be used to track anything from those with differing political views, to those who post pictures of Chinese military stuff.

There are ways to deal with porn, but this is not the right way.

Chinese users are expressing themselves, calling this an epic fail.

Click to expand...

I took my political class recently. According to the book there are three types of political states: Democracy, Totalitarianism and Authoritarianism, and China belongs to the last one. According to their political system, what they currently do is "nature".

lilzz said:

Chinese end users will pick the bill.

Click to expand...

Which is a part of the problem. The company got the 40million yuan contract from the government, while the taxpayers were not aware of this and there were no open bid for this project.

@Crobato:
there's even a rather cute song about it in mandarin.

I totally agree with Crobato. And seriously, what do they have to fear.... After the Olympics you'd expect things to go the other way....
It doesn't warrant the WTO IMO, but it's such an intrusion of privacy and you know......

And even if they manage to clear a lot of porn out, what are they going to do about "waterdrop"? "pipe cleaner"? "chicken essence"? Sooner or later people will come out with alternate names and either your program becomes useless, or become so extensive you can't even find a repair shop for the water heater. (And since pipes in China are of low quality because the constructor like to skimp out and go to the hills, imagine....)

My dad is bringing his laptop with him to China, what is going to happen then?

But yea, if you go to a mainland site, including military ones, there are almost always porn commercials on the side bar and the bottom.

Just came across this and remembered:

If something like THAT happens..... all hell breaks loose.

sumdud said:

My dad is bringing his laptop with him to China, what is going to happen then?

Click to expand...

nothing, the regulation is only for new computers sold in china. existing ones should be fine. Besides, you can uninstall it. However, I've heard reports saying that being the filter software that it is, it puts files in the System32 folder, and doesn't delete them when you uninstall the software. If this is true, then there might be complications. Also people say your internet slows down when you have Green Dam installed.