This photo, posted last week on Twitpic by a pseudonymous blogger claiming to be based in Hangzhou, shows a document included in the box of a new Sony Vaio computer. (Click to enlarge.)
It is titled: "Sony Disclaimer Notice Concerning the Green Dam - Youth Escort" Software." The document makes the following points (my summary, not verbatim translation):
- Green Dam doesn't support a 64-bit operating system, so PC's with the 64-bit OS don't include this software.
- The software is provided to users in accordance with government requirements.
- Sony cannot guarrantee the authenticity, legality, or compatibility of the software's content, function, service or any other feature.
- Sony assumes no responsibility whatsoever for any kinds of loss or harm incurred by the user as a result of use of Green Dam. Sole responsibility lies with the software's maker.
- The locations on the PC's hard drive of the program and user manual are then listed.
So it appears that Sony has gone ahead with distribution of Green Dam on at least some of its computers sold in China, providing the program on the hard disk for the user to install if they want, with major disclaimers.
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports that a broad coalition of international business associations, including most of the world's major technology companies have issued an appeal directly to Premier Wen Jiabao:
An executive from the Taiwanese computer company Acer is quoted saying they're going ahead with compliance, having "no choice."The letter, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, says the plan "raises serious concerns for us and seems to run counter to China's important goal of becoming a vibrant and dynamic information-based society."
It urges the government to "reconsider implementing the Green Dam requirements," and proposes an open dialogue on parental controls over content for children. "The Green Dam mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice," it says.
I have also received two documents from an anonymous source. Both were issued by the Ministry of Information Industry in 2006. They're in Chinese, and quite long. I have not had a chance to go over them in detail. I am sharing them both in full. Hopefully somebody with more time and stronger technical translation skills than I have will help the community by doing a partial or full translation.
In sending me these documents my source points out: "Note the Jinhui and others were drafters of this standard. The 国家计算机网络应急技术处理中心 is a national cyber security related organization... Note that it also refers to possible mobile phone standards of similar nature. Also language in there about having a remote access capability."
The first is titled "Technical Requirements of Internet Parental Control Software Based on PC"
Green Dam Technical Requirements - Official Doc (Chinese)
The second document is titled "Test Methods of Internet Parental Control Software Based on PC"Green Dam Test Methods Official Document
The Spec YDN 138-2006(Technical Requirements of Internet Parental Control Software Based on PC) is designed to filter malignant information, without mentioning politically sensitive content.
Section 3.1.1 Definition of malignant informaiton
pornography,violence,gambling,suicide contents which are unhealthy for youngsters
Posted by: Bryan | June 28, 2009 at 03:16 AM
partial translation
Section 6.2.4 Remote notification
Auto-generated alerts will be sent to administrators via e-mail or SMS while access to URL addresses or content which meet the filtering settings.
...
Section 6.2.6 Remote control
Filtering software should allow administrator to view log or modify filtering settings remotely.
...
Section 7.3 Security
Installation and use of the filtering software should not introduce new security vulnerability into the system.
The filtering software should run in background, and can not be terminated, uninstalled or deleted without authorization. That is, Without particular Administration Account or hardware, the filtering software cannot be terminated, uninstalled or deleted.
The filtering software should have fault detection mechanism and fault bypass mechanism.
The installation path and filename of the filtering software should be anonymous.
The key information of filtering software,such as configuration rules, related database should be stored in encrypted format.
By using URL address filtering, the filtering software should invalidate filtering avoidance method via proxy servers.
The filtering software should not collect user information without user permission.
Posted by: Bryan | June 28, 2009 at 04:22 AM
Hopefully, Solid Oak (producers of Cybersitter, the software whose IP Green Dam violates ) will go ahead and sue the fluck out of all the companies that ship PC's with Green Dam included.
China wants to bully it's own populace? Fine; beyond some internet indignation and editiorials, the average Zhou doesn't really seem to mind, as far as I can tell. But I hope and pray that this doesn't set the precedent of the Chinese govt going ahead and telling foreign companies they have to be complicit in open and flagrant violations of U.S. and E.U. copyright law.
It takes a lot of f**king nerve for Sony and Acer to go ahead and usurp Solid Oak's IP, but I am sure they have a crack team of lawyers ready to storm the gates.
Yah, 中国加油... what a joke
Posted by: James G | June 28, 2009 at 07:52 PM
Rebecca, you are still mis-translating stuff about Green Dam, all seem to be in an effort to propagandiz your position that somehow the Chinese government is making people use this software.
This is not the case at all, as end users were never under any mandate to install or use this software.
Here's the correct translation of section 4 and 5 titles:
"Location of Original Software Installation Articles:"
"Software Install/Uninstall Guide:"
As you can see, Sony bundled the software as per 5/19 MIIT announcement, but did not install it. That choice is still freely up to the end users.
Posted by: Charles Liu | July 04, 2009 at 01:37 AM