Yahoo - Bunch of Snitches??

[Strong Eagle]

A fellow in China was sentenced to ten years in prison for writing emails critical of the government. The government caught him because Yahoo gave out the man's location from his Yahoo account.

They said it was a requirement but that is not true. First of all, Yahoo was operating in Hong Kong, not China, where the secrecy laws are very different. Second, Yahoo made no attempt ot fight or clarify the requests in court... they just went ahead and turned the guy in.

[Vaucluse]

You can bet your last dime that they would have fought it tooth and nail if this were to have happened in the US or Europe.

It starts witht he omission of certain words from the Internet vocabulary, like freedom, democracy, falun gong etc . . .

I can understand the financial hit if they were to be barred, but why is everyone so friggin' scared of this massive bully, be it in politics, geo-politics, economics - whatever. Pathetic.

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[Strong Eagle]

with the fact of China having more than 100 million internetusers and going to 300 million in just a year, I'd say Yahoo made a sensible business move in shaking hands with the Chinese government.

Eric

Ahhh... greed before principle, is that it?

[Vaucluse]

Eric, no-one is doubting the economic logic of the action, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. How long have Western Countries placed one embargo after another, especially after Tianmen, how many companies have boycotted this oppresive regime?

Shame that greed wins out in the end.

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[Ling2]

Eric, no-one is doubting the economic logic of the action, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. How long have Western Countries placed one embargo after another, especially after Tianmen, how many companies have boycotted this oppresive regime?

Shame that greed wins out in the end.

Prof Vaucluse, if I may? Sir, beg to differ.....

Greed will not win in the end, because it's not the end yet. Companies not boycotting, would perhaps be in another strategic move?

Let's say how would you fight a 1.2 billions population? How about becoming "one" with them..and slowly influence from within to introduce change? If you can't fight the enemy don't .... join them...and , , create or give them once you have the power(if you still remain uncorrupted) you can shower positive influence

[Vaucluse]

Ling-ling, you may beg to differ, of course. And I'm not a prof, but actually started my doctorate but then decided that I was tired of living on peanut butter sandwiches.

As a serious discussion. Change from within is not always possible, especially in such a controlled and repressed society with 'Big Brother' definitely watching you, and listening to you, and watching what you read and knowing how many children you have had so they can abort your second one even if it is close to term.

This is pretty much as close to a Reagan-esque evil empire as you will find anywhere, wanton corruption, land-grab, religious persecution, destruction of civilisations and replaced by the Han majority, environmental destruction unseen before and the list goes on and on and on and on.

As for Yahoo especially, considering Jerry Yang is Taiwanese, it is very disappointing that they didn't stand up for THEMSELVES.

(Umm,

How about becoming "one" with them

I'm a 6'2 white guy with hazel/green eyes, light brown hair and hairy arms - never in a million years . . . )

[locallass]

Actually we're assuming that businesses should have a social or political conscience. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to the bottomline. Companies often care about Corporate Social Responsibility only when it hurts their revenue. And most of the time, a company’s social programs do not matter as much to the consumer as the quality of their products.

Vaucluse> Interesting. Of all the hairy body parts, why highlight the arms?

[Vaucluse]

Arms are generally the most visible, how many Chinese men that have brown hairy arms?

And that is the point, locallass - people have to make their own stand. If yahoo doesn't, how can Microsoft, if Microsift can't then how can . . . all the way down to the guy that buys/sells fish to/from China.

And that's exactly what SE and I said - economic rationale over human rights/dignity. (Sorry if I am misinterpreting your words, SE)

[locallass]

Okay I thought men would go around beating their hairy (macho) chest instead

Yup human rights is important. Unfortunately, most companies can only demand for human rights to be observed only when the balance of power is in their favour. After all, their raison d'etre is profit. In fact, their survival depends on this. I'm not saying this is right of course. But we do need to be aware of the limitations of how far we can go.