China Dams Green Dam – For Now

After a large number of protests from governments, industry, and consumers, China delayed indefinitely its requirement that all computers sold starting July 1, 2009 come with monitoring and censoring software known as Green Dam. This is good news, but leaves open the question of whether China will persist in trying to control the flow of information to computer users using Microsoft's Windows operating system. (Note to Apple and Linux vendors: Prep your marketing plans. Green Dam is a potential bonanza). After getting over the shock of a government mandating something so intrusive, one wonders about the lack of planning exhibited by the Chinese government and its Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Neither Chinese officials nor the software developers working on Green Dam seem to have thought through how such a program could be installed on every computer in the country (not just new ones, and not just Windows-based machines). I won't give away any of the trade "secrets" that constitute best practices and working models for software deployment in the U.S., because it would help Chinese autocrats compromise free markets, privacy, security, and individual liberty. Don't be surprised if Beijing comes back with another attempt on this front once they think they've got it figured out. On the other hand, maybe they will quietly walk away from this blundering effort at censorship wrapped in the cloak of "protecting children" and hope that we will politely refrain from reminding them about it in the future.