[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Has China?s Green Dam Burst? here

[scapalexis]

I would like to see how well Green Dam runs on my Linux machine! The government forcing Green Dam on every Windoze machine will be the start of the Linux revolution in China. I personally think the boycotting and the gatherings are useless. Just install Linux.

[KenHigdon]

Good idea, so when you access the restricted sites and your ip gets pinged not only have you violated domestic security but removing or bypassing the restrictive software probably has penalties. I am all for Linux, Windows, and Mac. They all have places, but if anything Iran has taught us recently is how and where to access web proxies.

[winxile]

I am amazed that there is a constant stream of criticism for the Chinese decision to try and censor the internet (which is strongly oppose) but that there is no mention at all of the Australian government's decision to ban Second Life and other on-line games.

This surely must also represent a restriction of civil liberties by a Western government.

[scapalexis]

@KenHigdon:
Well, that depends on the existence of the proxy right? Instead of depending on some computer far away, why not solve the problem yourself? It's not like China doesn't block controversial sites already. I am saying that using Linux is where Green Dam cannot be installed (yet) is probably a better idea than boycotting the internet or protesting on blogs. I believe you can spoof IP and MAC addresses on Linux machines easily.

[aspicer]

You believe...

What I think? It doesn't really matter what I think. Once that first first bullet goes past your head - politics and all that other crap goes right out the window.

---
Black Hawk Down

[chevrolet1994]

Preventing kids from viewing porn on line yes,preventing people from viewing political websites,no.

[shbrad]

If this software was truely designed for porn, then why has the government not taken a more stern aproach to the end of prostitution, sex trade and other forms of human trafficking. It is still common for men to buy their wives. Every city has a bar (read whore) street, "barber shops", KTV, bath house...The list goeas on. Where are the priorities? Yet another mask for cencorship.

[roimeetslol]

Speaking of Youth Escort, It's July 1st and you all know it means Happy Chinese Internet Maintenance Day! Check this out nobuski.comWhy call it censorship when you maintenance is so much better.

[shahzadafzal]

This would not help at all. Very soon people will find the way to cheat DAM BURST. As it is only for WINDOWS then what about LINUX? Pornography should be banned for children and teenagers... but imposing it on all the nation i think its not good.

[kitsune17717]

I do NOT want china to be involved in technological advances now or in the future, EVER. I'm glad that another political body started the internet.

[quackadilly]

Instead of the government controlling this, I think the parents need to watch their kids. These days kids are BAD. Their attitudes, clothing, and language is 10 times worse than it was even 10 years ago.



Parents need to set the standard for their children.....be the role model.

[laolonghe]

Why is that everybody seems to accept it as censorship so easily ?

I watched CCTV on CCTV.com and it says the program is to be activated by the end users, and there is nothing to prevent the end users from removing it if they want to either.

The intention of this requirement is only to make it easy and cost free for those parents in China who want to keep their children away from certain stuff on internet .. from what I know, these people are the majority in China.

I suspect the PCs with this program may turn out selling better in China than those without. i.e. DELL and HP maybe the losers.

[kitsune17717]

hah! and we just assumed that the program will be installed permanently on the user's computer! I guess that's why people around the world regard north americans as ignorant and snobby.

[shbrad]

This end user activation/deactivation must be new. The initial reports said that it was to be installed on all computers, without any mention of the being able to disable it. Being included as an option is much more reasonable, but we still have the problem of "political" censorship. This goes way beyond NetNanny or other similar software.

As far as this being a cost effective addition for the poor families, that's a joke. For one, if you have the money for the computer, you have the money for the software. If not, you can get a fake for 8kuai. If you are too poor for the computer, there are the countless internet cafes. That is, if you can stand the smoke. Maybe they should just give coupons for NetNanny.

Censorship is the main objective. All this other stuff is just glittery stuff that helps to slip this past us. Animal Farm, anyone?

The thing I don't like about this is that it is already hard enough to search for info on ancient Greece on Google without getting blocked. This is just going to add more difficulties.

???? (ai wo zhonghua)