Information/Technology - 89. page

On January 14, two days after Google’s announced threat to pull out of China, the People’s Daily published an interview of Wang Cheng, the Vice Chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s Department of Publicity and Director of the State Council Information Office. 

"Capable radio and television stations must vigorously develop Internet radio and Internet TV, breaking away from the traditional mode of production, so as to gather the resources and wisdom of Internet users," said the Zhu Hong, of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), on January 14. 

 Boxun reports that Google’s withdrawal was inevitable according to a Communist propaganda official.

“The Chinese officials said that Google’s withdrawal from China is a matter of time, except Google has not reached that point yet. He said that this time the so-called Google’s withdrawal from China is a bluff, so it can negotiate better terms. But this is clearly a miscalculation. The threat might have been effective a few months ago, but now it is just empty air, because the current Internet rectification is considered a matter of life and death for the Communist Party and the country. The ultimate goal is to bring search engines like Google that have such a great influence in China under control.”

Source: Boxun, January 13, 2010
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/01/201001131208.shtml

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