FW: [IP] Yahoo apparently born in Year of the RatSiliconValley.com - Good Morning Silicon Valley

What do we have to do to paint such companies as UnAmerican?

What if this had been the Soviet Union or Cuba instead of China?

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Wednesday, Sep 7, 2005 3:26 pm
Subject: [IP] Yahoo apparently born in Year of the RatSiliconValley.com - Good Morning Silicon Valley

Yahoo apparently born in Year of the RatBy JOHN PACZKOWSKI
Sure, Yahoo signed China's "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry," a voluntary agreement to monitor and restrict information deemed "harmful" by Beijing, but no one thought the company would follow it to the letter. Reporters Without Borders this week accused the Internet giant of helping Chinese state security officials catch and prosecute a journalist who "leaked state secrets,"Beijing's shorthand for criticizing the government. According to the media watchdog group, Yahoo willingly handed over information that enabled officials to link the IP address of the journalist's computer to a state secret he'd forwarded to foreign media via e-mail. In this case, the "state secret" was a message warning Chinese journalists of the dangers of social destabilization and risks resulting from the return of certain dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. "We already knew that Yahoo collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "Yahoo obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate," the organization said. "But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations? How far will it go to please Beijing? ... It is one thing to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's abuses and it is quite another thing to collaborate." The accusations highlight the conundrum facing Internet companies battling it out for a piece of the lucrative Chinese marketplace. How does one do business in China without supporting a government known for its censorship of online information?

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