microsoft has reached a new low

The following is a short article I read in this month's linux format:

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Microsoft's new spaces blogging service has also come under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that filters built into the software prevent users in China from typing certian words.High on the list od forbidden words were "freedom", "democracy", "human rights", "Tibet" and "Tiananmen".Users attempting to enter these words in a blog subject line were shown a warning that said, "This topic contains forbidden words.Please delete them."

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This absolutely disgusts me, microsoft has once again sunken to a new low in order to make a buck.But this time, they have also forsaken the citizens of china,who have had freedom stolen from them by a corrupt government.

Here is the site

oh no...not MS bashing ...AGAIN :rolleyes:

MLF

They are a money grubbing company. You think they would like to let google into China first? They are doing what the government requires them to do to work in China.

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The following is a short article I read in this month's linux format:

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Think about this... think about this hard... do you think you are getting fair and balanced news from the above format? :p

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oh no...not MS bashing ...AGAIN

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Nah, just posting info like anybody else here.

I guess this has been known for awhile, see below site.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/?p=232

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Originally posted here by pshannon
This absolutely disgusts me, microsoft has once again sunken to a new low in order to make a buck.Here is the site

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Google does it too. http://www.google.com/search?q=googl...en-US:official

It's a dog-eat-dog market. Adapt and cater to your customers or die. I don't like the fact that Google does this, but I can't help it and since they went public, I'm sure that they were under tremendous pressure to cave in because legally they have to make decisions that will bring their stockholders the most benefit.

- Xierox

It does make an interesting discussion. China is preventing their citizens to learn about "wrong, harmful ideas" and thus blocks access to those sites. Companies that are supporting China in blocking this bad influence are therefore favored. Companies that tend to bypass these local laws are blocked.

Nothing new, actually. the USA and UK they are already doing something similar but with a slightly different topic. Instead of blocking freedom and Tibet, they are trying to block porn and nudity. It's a bit similar, since there are people in this world who don't see any harm in those topics.

And I can imagine that many Islamic countries might want to block anything Jewish or Christian-like. Or any negative comments about Islam.

Thing is, we all feel that the Internet should be free for all, open for all kinds of things but the reality is that the Internet still has borders. And some information is not allowed to go past those borders. Of course, for every person the only law that counts are the laws of their own nationality. But does one nation has the right to ignore local laws in another country? Do companies have the right to ignore foreign laws, no matter how weird they are? Or should foreign laws be respected when you interact with those foreign nations?

Google and Microsoft are just adapting to their customer. And if I wanted to do business with the Chinese government, I'd just do the same. Don't provide foreign citizens the tools to break their laws because you'd be very unwelcome in those countries afterwards...

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Originally posted here by Katja
But does one nation has the right to ignore local laws in another country? Do companies have the right to ignore foreign laws, no matter how weird they are? Or should foreign laws be respected when you interact with those foreign nations?

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Eh?Ofcourse they do lol...why should a country's local laws have anything to do with another country?And companies cant ignore foreign laws..if they hope to do business with them on above the table terms:D

I use to work for this christian organization that broadcasted christian tv over satellite. I was told to edit out anything that represented America. American flags; words like "God Bless America"; anything against another religion; anything Taliban related; the slightest bit of nudity (and I mean the slightest) or basically anything else the owner didn't like.