Information/Technology - 87. page

Google said on January 12 that it may pull out of China after a “sophisticated” computer network attack against its email service originated from China. The attack, discovered in December, was against the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Most of the attack attempts were blocked. Only two accounts were accessed. The jeopardized information was just the account information (e.g. account creation time) and emails contents were intact.

Google questioned the feasibility of continuing its business operations in China and decided that it is no longer willing to continue censoring its search results on Chinese Google sites, which was required by the Chinese government.  

"We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn our offices in China," said David Drummond, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer.

Source:
1. BBC Chinese, January 13, 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2010/01/100113_google_china_internet.shtml
2. Washington Post, January 12, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011203024.html?hpid=topnews

On January 4, 2010, Santa Barbara, California-based CYBERsitter, LLC filed a lawsuit against China, two Chinese software makers, and seven computer manufacturers for their involvement in creating and distributing Green Dam software. University of Michigan’s scientists found that they had taken CYBERsitter’s code. CYBERsitter seeks $2.2 billion in damages for copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, and civil conspiracy. The company alleges that the defendants distributed over 56 million copies of the Green Dam software.

In June 2009, China mandated that all new computers must have Green Dam installed starting July 1, 2009. Green Dam was said to protect youth from accessing porn sites, but it was revealed to block people from accessing websites on the government’s black list such as Falun Gong, Dalai Lama, and so on. The mandatory installation was eventually stopped because of strong protests by Western governments and computer manufacturers.

Source:
1. Beijing Youth, January 9, 2010
http://bjyouth.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=62404507
2. Information Week, January 5, 2010
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200365

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced on December 28 that a total of 13,175 domain names have been banned since the government-run Internet rectification movement started on December 9. CNNIC is currently checking nearly 14 million registered .cn domain names manually. So far, the work on 2 million names has been completed. This latest round of the Internet rectification movement is mainly sponsored by the Ministry of Public Safety, in the name of fighting against pornography and illegal publications.

Source: Xinhua, December 29, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/29/content_12723509.htm

On December 31, 2009, the website of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced a plan to set up a mechanism for reporting and handling Internet illegalities and directing communications authorities to blacklist the illegal sites. 

The state-owned Chinese Central Television (CCTV) is officially entering the Internet video market. CCTV formed an online TV platform under the name of CNTV.cn.  

The platform focuses on interactive audio/video services with global, multilingual, and multi-terminal support. CCTV is currently improving global mirroring. Major Chinese private video service providers intend to avoid direct competition against CNTV, citing its ownership by the Communist regime.  

It is well known that the primary business obstacle in the Chinese online video market is the violation of copyrights. 

Source: CBN, December 24, 2009
http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20091224/000000142409.shtml

According to CCTV (Chinese Central Television), by the end of November, the Chinese netizen population reached 360 million – an increase of 20.8%. This number tops the globe. Meanwhile, related statistics show that, by end of June, the Chinese Internet covered 25.5% of the entire population, which is above the global average of 21.9%. The number of Chinese owned domain names reached over 16 million, among which .cn domain names are around 13 million. That makes .cn the largest country domain. According to Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chinese broadband users passed 100 million by the end of October.

Source: Global Times, December 15, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-12/661062.html

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently announced five new administrative rules on .cn domain names: (1) Enhancement of the blacklisting mechanism for domain owners; (2) Firming up the requirement on domain owner’s real identity registration; (3) Domains without owner registration will not be resolved (meaning the users won’t be able to visit pages on that domain); (4) If a domain was under government investigation for violating rules, domain resolution for all domains registered by that domain owner will be suspended and the domain owner will be put in the black list; (5) Improving the administration of companies that provide domain registration services.

Source:Xinhua, December 17, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-12/17/content_12663192.htm

In a recent Internet News Media Training Class held by the State Council Information Office (SCIO), Deputy Director Xia Chenghua of the Stability Preservation Office under the CCP’s Central Committee gave a speech on the Current Status of Preserving Stability and the Requirement for Internet Propaganda.