[Foundation-l] China Requires Censoring Software on New PCs

Tue Jun 9 02:28:49 UTC 2009

Wouldn't it be nicely ironic if the Internet decided to block China? I
wonder how it would play, when the Chinese government offices used to
unrestricted access suddenly found themselves surfing the Chinese Intranet
behind the Great Firewall blocking Chinese traffic from the rest of the
world...

Anyway, we shouldn't be surprised when new and inventive methods are found
for accomplishing old goals. While technology is always developed to allow
people to circumvent out-of-date censorship rules, we should expect that the
rules and enforcement mechanisms will eventually be updated. This particular
method doesn't seem to have much teeth; future attempts might, but it would
be usual practice for innovative folks in China to make their own way around
the rules. Economic reality suggests that Western technology organizations
won't do it for them.

Nathan