China is at it again..

They didn't feel "secured" enough with their own version of OS..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8091044.stm

Quote:

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China has defended the use of new screening software that has to be installed on all computers.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the software would filter out pornographic or violent material.

Critics have complained that it could also be used to stop Chinese internet users searching for politically sensitive information.

But Mr Qin, speaking at a regular press briefing, said China promoted the healthy development of the internet.

All computers sold in China - even those that are imported - will have to be pre-installed with the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software.

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Quote:

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But Mr Qin, speaking at a regular press briefing, said China promoted the healthy development of the internet.

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Great. Just sprayed coffee all over my keyboard... thanks. :-P

Wow that is quite hectic.

Must be a huge thing to control though.

Big potential for a black market there :)

U.A.E is using almost same system, all hacking, porn, net to phone, proxy, online video and many more categories are blocked by government.

In simple word I can say it’s like Intranet… not internet.

Hey guys,

That can't be all that difficult to circumvent? All the Chinese seem to be saying is that they want parental control software on all boxes sold in China?

That isn't going to stop anyone :D

You can get it here for free:

http://www.lssw365.net/lvhang/index....st/index/pid/2

"Official" view:

Quote:

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after a period of testing and evaluation, the "Green Dam Youth Escort" software received government blessing in April to be made available for free public download. The press release says that the software has been downloaded over 3 million times since the end of March and is being used by approximately 2279 schools, with installation in nearly 518 thousand computers. It also says that 6957 websites have installed the software. It says that the Ministry of Information Industry is working with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, and the State Council Information Office to get the software installed in primary and middle schools across the country. The final sentence of the press release also announces the companies including Lenovo, Inspur, and Hedy have agreed to pre-install "Green Dam Youth Escort" in their products, with the software already installed in more than 52.7 million units. No foreign companies are mentioned.

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And:

Quote:

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Mr. Zhang said his company compiles and maintains the list of blocked sites, which he says is limited to pornography sites. He said the software would allow the blocking of other types of content, as well as the collection of private user data, but that Jinhui would have no reason to do so. He also said the software can be turned off or uninstalled.

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Don't US schools filter internet access as a legal requirement?

Anyways, I have just downloaded a copy to have a look at..............problem is that I don't know any naughty Chinese sites :lildevil:

Quote:

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Don't US schools filter internet access as a legal requirement?

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Yes, I believe it is CIPA [Children's Internet Protection Act].

At the school I work for, we have to have content filtering in place. [along with a few other requirements]

At this point it doesn't seem that sinister. Just pretty standard parental control style software that works off a blacklist (and possibly a whitelist?).

Sure, you can use that for censorship, but I wonder just how effective that would be on a privately owned computer with root/admin rights?

So far it looks like a locally grown parental control package to me.

I must say it strikes me as strange that people worry about OSes and a few applications when just about every electrical appliance in the Western World is currently made in China :eek:

Nihil, I honestly think this is absurd and way beyond sinister (not the way software works) but the *imperativeness* that it must be on *every* system in C.

While I’m unaware of the clauses of CIPA I am sure it doesn’t grant the government to walk into your house and install software onto your machine.

At places where I use hardware and software that doesn’t belong to me, YES I am okay having any monitoring software on the machine including a keylogger since I’m not suppose to anything except my work (official things) on that machine. It might get little uncomfortable with a keylogger but I really wouldn’t fight against it.

As far as having a software or hardware made by the government or anyone to be installed on my personal machine.. HELL NO!

I’m not even going to the extent of saying C government is going to use the software for other purposes (remote access, monitoring) whatever. Just the fact that you want to install something on my machine is a “hell no” for me. Democratic government is chosen by the people and for the people.


PS: I know C doesn’t follow democratic government system.

Yes in UAE there is a lot of restriction porno, net to phone, and many google images also, as welll as orkut.com,


and without forgetting India does not have any restriction for such prono things

you know the population which proves a lot

at least china is taking a step to control.


o i forgot i am downloading a copy but its all in Chinese is this software going to use internationally or only for Chinese

Well, firstly this does seem to be aimed at schools and other young peoples' environments.

I smell "nanny state" here................the govt. say this software must be installed to protect your children and the rest is up to you.....................a typical politicians' tactic IMO. Not much different from ruling that all automobiles must have seatbelts?

If you look at the Chinese to date they are hardly stellar when it comes to software development. Mostly other people's stuff they have copied.

They do have a vested interest though, as there are so many computers in China, anything that removes a requirement for imported software is welcome.

They can't live off pirated stuff forever and they know it.;)