Google censors itself for China

[rickvanr]

How do people feel about this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4645596.stm

[zimv20]

google's a business. they have a duty to their stockholders, and if being in china means a better bottom line, well there it is. and they'll be well-positioned for whatever happens in china.

blame the chinese government.

[maya]

google's a business. they have a duty to their stockholders, and if being in china means a better bottom line, well there it is. and they'll be well-positioned for whatever happens in china.

blame the chinese government.

Actually this is an agreement that Google, Microsoft, etc...have made with the Chinese Government in order to do business in China.

I believe Google, MS, etc.......want the market share and usage, they could care less if its fair or unfair to the citizens of China. Plain and Simple, it have nothing to do with "a" or "any" company to decide what is right or wrong in another countries law, however this is supposed to be taken up with the UN, etc.

Either follow the rules or be shut down. Not that I side with the Chinese Gov't.

[miloblithe]

Didn't Yahoo recently make the same sort of agreement? Basically, if they want access to the world's largest number of people, they have to play by the government's rules. Pretty crappy, but China has proven again and again it will play hardball.

[Ugg]

Didn't Yahoo recently make the same sort of agreement? Basically, if they want access to the world's largest number of people, they have to play by the government's rules. Pretty crappy, but China has proven again and again it will play hardball.

Isn't that what the US is doing by forcing search engines to turn over search info? Is wikipedia next? What about my emails?

Corporations are becoming the handmaidens of government in a way that we could never have imagined just a decade ago.

[mactastic]

Isn't the US government doing something similar with things like the algorithm in Photoshop that freaks out when it detects money? Backdoor entrys into encryption software? Stuff like that?

[stoid]

Isn't the US government doing something similar with things like the algorithm in Photoshop that freaks out when it detects money? Backdoor entrys into encryption software? Stuff like that?

I'm not certain that actually happens. We just did a project in one of my courses placing objects on a scanner and a fellow student used money, from coins to $50s in a few of his works, and there seemed to be no trouble opening them in Photoshop CS2. Of course the professor wasn't thrilled about it.... :D :p

[solvs]

It was in CS1.

Looks like this isn't only a problem in China though. Look at what's happening here in the US. Microsoft defends decision to give up search data to US government (http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/01/25/msdata/index.php). Does that bother anyone else?