China Won't Budge On Green Dam's July 1 Deadline

China may be letting its computer users postpone installing Internet-filtering software, but will not budge on its mandate requiring that the censorship software be packaged with computers sold in China, despite requests from U.S. computer makers to reconsider its position.

Last month, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a directive to computer makers requiring that censorship software, called Green Dam Youth Escort, be preinstalled on all new computers or accompanying computers on CDs of installation software starting July 1. The directive also included the requirement that the software be saved in backup and recovery files in case the computer crashes.

The mandate has elicited strong objections from U.S. PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which have asked the Chinese government to drop its directive requiring that their computers come preinstalled with Green Dam.

But China is holding firm to its deadline, U.S. firms say.

Subsequently, four U.S. trade groups, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Semiconductor Industry Association -- have sent a statement to the Chinese government asking it "to reconsider implementing its new mandatory filtering software requirement," according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Green Dam itself could cause colossal damage, security experts say. Researchers have pointed out security vulnerabilities in Green Dam that could enable attackers to hack into a computer with the filtering software installed and overtake the user's computer, according to Reuters.

China maintained that its Web-filtering software requirement would only be used to block access to Web sites that feature violence and pornography. However, the mandate elicited a firestorm of criticism from individuals who claimed that in addition to blocking pornography, the software could and would also be used to block access to gay rights Web sites, controversial literature or other political or spiritual content.

Green Dam also has come under fire from Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Solid Oak Software, which claims that Green Dam's Chinese developers stole programming code from its own Web-filtering product Cybersitter.

Solid Oak issued cease and desist letters to both HP and Dell, demanding that the companies halt the production and distribution of any computers with Green Dam software installed.

Until more is revealed, PC makers are withholding comment until they get a clearer idea of where the Chinese government actually stands on the issue. But they could be waiting a while.

It doesn't look as if China will be budging on its July 1 deadline anytime soon.

As part of further efforts to control Internet content, Chinese officials also are recruiting 10,000 volunteers by the end of the summer to oversee Internet content, a policy outlined in a plan presented Tuesday by the Beijing Internet Administration Office, The New York Times reports.

In the past, the Chinese government has executed censorship software and human intervention programs intended to block Internet access to Web sites that are considered pornographic or threatening to the Communist Party. The censored sites have included a vast array of political sites discussing Tibet or the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. And many bloggers and activists see China's Web-filtering requirement as a continuation of its existing culture of monitoring and censorship.