Never mind it is
pirated
Despite complaints that its shield is built on pirated
software, and the fact that it may leave millions of users open to software
attack, China is sticking to its planned launch of a controversial Internet
censoring software.
In one week the plan to require the Web-filtering
Green Dam Youth Escort software on all personal computers sold in China will
be enforced. The software has to be pre-installed or included on a compact
disc with all PCs sold in China. The announcement that the plan was going
ahead came amid efforts by Chinese Web surfers to lobby the communist
government to scrap it.
American diplomats met Friday with officials of
China's ministries of commerce and information technology to express concern
and seek more information about the system. The US Government is
concerned about Green Dam both in terms of its potential impact on trade and
the serious technical issues raised by use of the software.
Chinese
officials say the Internet filtering is an effort to block access to violent
and pornographic material and is not part of a control of free speech.