Skype也开始过滤了

据英国《金融时报》报道，Skype公司承认其在中国的合作伙伴( Tom Online )已经开始在Skype软件中增加文字信息过滤，目的是为了遵守中国的审查制度，这是在中国做生意的唯一方式。这条消息并不让人吃惊，在此之前，Google、Microsoft和Yahoo都已经陆续向审查制度低头了，而中国自己的网络公司包括用户早已对此习以为常（敏感词，审帖），我始终认为不要对商人过于苛求，他们的首要目的是赚钱，相对利益而言，其它的无论是正义还是道德都变得不那么重要了，面对中国这全球最后一块肥肉，任谁都会动心，何况它们也只是按中国的法律办事而已。当然为什么Google在美国可以拒绝和美国政府合作交出用户搜索记录，而在中国则必须战战兢兢，这其中原因我们都清楚。这是一次长期的博弈，在我有生之年能看到结局吗？

Skype says texts are censored by China

By Alison Maitland in London
Published: April 18 2006 22:23 | Last updated: April 18 2006 23:01

skypeSkype, the fast-growing internet communications company that belongs to Ebay, has admitted that its partner in China has filtered text messages, defending this compliance with censorship laws as the only way to do business in the country.

In a Financial Times interview, Niklas Zennström, Skype’s chief executive, responded to accusations that the company had censored text messages containing words like “Falun Gong” – a banned movement – and “Dalai Lama”. He said that Tom Online, its joint venture partner in China, was complying with local law.

“Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing,” said Mr Zennström. “Those are the regulations.”

He claimed that compliance with Chinese censorship was no different from obeying rules governing business in western countries. China, along with the US and Germany, is one of Skype’s three biggest markets in terms of active users of its free telephony service, which routes encrypted calls between computers via the internet.

Entering the controversy that has seen Yahoo, Google and Microsoft heavily criticised for working with China’s censorship rules, Mr Zennström said: “I may like or not like the laws and regulations to operate businesses in the UK or Germany or the US, but if I do business there I choose to comply with those laws and regulations. I can try to lobby to change them, but I need to comply with them. China in that way is not different.”

He insisted that the actions of Tom-Skype had not put users at risk. Yahoo has been lambasted for providing information that helped the Chinese authorities to jail two dissidents.

Referring to the measures taken by the joint venture, Mr Zennström said: “One thing that’s certain is that those things are in no way jeopardising the privacy or the security of any of the users.”

Mr Zennström is known for pioneering disruptive technology. He and Janus Friis, his co-founder at Skype, also created Kazaa, the software that enabled millions of people to share copyrighted music illegally over the internet.

He said Skype, which was launched in 2003 and acquired by Ebay last year, had gained more than 80m users worldwide. “I think it’s good for businesses and people in China to have access not only to Skype but also to services like Google and Yahoo and Ebay.”

Mr Zennström denied he was concerned about the time it was taking for China to permit paid-for calls between computers and conventional telephones, a service Skype offers under the name SkypeOut.

Tom Online, which is controlled by Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon, said last month that the Chinese government would not allow such services for at least two years.

“We’re not in a great hurry [to launch SkypeOut] there,” Mr Zennström said. “In China it’s still a big challenge to charge for online services. We have a very good dialogue with the Chinese telephone companies and the authorities.”

Update: China Tells Yahoo All Your Drafts Are Belong To Us
from the who-needs-a-warrant-when-you’re-so-cooperative dept

Yahoo has again turned over information to the Chinese government that lead to a user being jailed, a human rights group says, for the third time. What makes this case a little different from earlier cases of Yahoo acceding to the Chinese is that Yahoo turned over a draft email to the authorities, not one that had been sent or received. While it’s hardly surprising that Chinese authorities would lay claim to anything on a server of an Internet company operating in their country, the twist that it was a draft is slightly interesting, if for no other reason than many people’s perception that a draft might be more private than something they actually send out. Also, the fact that the government knew to request the draft would indicate that they’d been surveilling the user for some time — again, not a surprise, but perhaps indicative of the degree to which Yahoo cooperates. These sorts of issues are becoming more commonplace, as companies don’t seem to have too many qualms about going along with the government to maintain their piece of the Chinese market. There’s been a lot of posturing about this, but at what point — if ever — will the decisions to play ball with the repressive regime come back to haunt them?