Posted on 06/10/2005 3:35:49 PM PDT by phoenix_004
Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.
Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have been blocked from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal websites they create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.moneycentral.msn.com ...
I'm not too keen on Google either -- but like a wino in an alley I keep stumbling back to it for another draught.
Unfortunately you are probably correct. At some point long in the future you'll probably have to log onto the network with something similar to your SSN, so you can be tracked and they verify you pay for content you access. We're talking a long ways off, but due to terrorism, hackism, and theivery, the government will probably at some point require it. By then, many will actually want it, else it wouldn't go through.
Even if it were air-tight, it would not work. You can say a whole lot of subversive things without saying the words "democracy" and "freedom." They are opening Pandora's Box, but they've somehow convinced themselves that these measures will keep it under control.
And suppose that they are right? They don't seem to understand that the primary thing that makes the internet a useful tool is the fact that you can share ideas freely. If they are going to do this, then why have the internet at all?
The other thing is that they could spend tens or hundreds of billions of dollars censoring the web. It's a complete waste of economic resources. To succeed at censoring the web, they'd end up putting their economy at a disadvantage.
Dean is obviously (for more reasons than this example) a whacko, but there are many Republicans that are currently instituting tighter controls on the internet right now, starting with the administration. It could be decades before a thorough tracking system is in place, but you know they will, eventually, whether we are willing participants, or even aware of it, or not. Enjoy your freedoms while you can, but the majority of per byte traffic on the internet right now is either porn or pirated software/music/movies, and politicians of all colors will eventually feel the need to step in and "protect us from ourselves", if not the actual internet vandals and theives.
If you want to know the biggest bunch of Rat Bastards helping the chicoms with the Great Firewall of China, I think Cisco wins the award.
You have yet to condemn MS for this: I condemn MS, Cisco, Intel and anyone else helping the chicoms oppress their citizens.
Here's a link for you. I hope you like it.
"For the love of money is the root of all (kinds of) evil."
Cold day, hell... enough said..
LOL, it sure is funny to watch you flop and flounder about when your hypocrisy is exposed. I said in my first post (and have countless other times) I don't believe in tech exports to China because all they do is use them to further their goals of oppression. I then in my last post above referred to the practice as "despicable". You're the one left trying to explain why you originally tried to bash Microsoft alone for it, and infer that I somehow supported it, both of which leave you in your current predicament, for which I am certainly not to blame. Quite obviously, you have no one but yourself to thank for that.
You're just as hypocritical as he is. If you want to take a step towards proving you're not, then go create a thread with today's news that the Mozilla site in Korea was hacked and defaced.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050613/tc_afp/chinainternetcompany
You wasted no time creating a thread when a similar problem happened to MSN a couple of weeks ago, your joy overflowing. Remember?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1415640/posts
Wrong link. Here it is:
http://addict3d.org/index.php?page=viewarticle&type=news&ID=7380
And another:
http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3512081
I already condemmed them, and pointed they were not alone, and we've since come to find out that Google and Yahoo had already made those changes for the Chicoms ahead of Microsoft.
Now the question is, are you going to show any consistency yourself, and create a thread about Mozilla's website getting hacked like you so gleefully did when it happened to Microsoft? Apparently not.
Good, hopefully I won't have to goad you into it next time.
My position is very consistent, I don't believe in basically any tech exports to China, especially not giving them free copies of software to legally use much less rename "Red Flag".
I also despise when companies like IBM and Microsoft partner with or praise the Chicoms. Yes, I think IBM is more guilty of this, rightfully so, but I've also created entire new threads to bash Gates before, because I thought he deserved it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1345585/posts
Once again, you're wrong. Typical.
Horse manure. You support the GPL license, which does allow the chicoms to take a free and legal copy of Red Hat Linux and rename and resell it as Red Flag instead. Pointing fingers at Microsoft doesn't do you any good either, since they do nothing of the sort. They are actually victims of software piracy in China, something you seem obvlivious to since in your mind it should all be free anyway. If not you, the rest of your anti-Microsoft GPL-loving pack.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.