[Damn True]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/06/D8EV7CR00.html

From a business standpoint I fully understand Microsofts position in terms of the necessity to play by Chinas rules if they wish to have access to that market.

However the idea of the state having that level of control over commerce (where & how it operates) and speech gives me the heebie jeebies.

Your thoughts...

 

[Tenchiro]

The almighty dollar/yen/clam trumps all.

EDIT -- Yahoo is a much bigger offender though.

The role of the U.S. Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing "state secrets" is filtering into mainland China. The revelation reinforces a conviction among many Chinese "netizens" that there is no place security forces can't find them.

 

[binary visions]

This same guy has been getting shut down in blogs for a while now. Not just Microsoft. There were at least two other blogs he got shut out of. One of the blog sites has been globally blocked from the Chinese servers.

I can see both sides of it. I don't blame Microsoft at all for shutting the blog down as a business decision. It's too bad that free speech gets a back seat to business here, though. I guess I have a hard time getting worked up over it when the Chinese government would have clearly taken another course of action (i.e. blocking the blog site entirely) if they hadn't.