Posted 11/26/08 at 11:09:50 AM by Paul Lilly

In some respects, MySpace, FriendFinder, and every other social networking site could be considered a human flesh search engine. So could Google, Yahoo, and the rest of the online search portals, particularly when combined with incognito-based browsing. But in China, the seemingly sexual term takes on a completely different meaning than the first one that most likely popped into your head.

Instead, the term refers to vigilante cybermobs who collaborate online to hunt down who they perceive as wrongdoers deserving of the cybermobs' own brand of justice. Take for example of the case of Wang Fei, a former advertising executive. His wife posted several blog posts lamenting her husband's alleged infidelity before she committed suicide by jumping out of the couple's 24th--floor apartment. Following her death, cybermobs posted Wang's personal information on several forums, including his phone numbers, address, and national ID number. Someone painted a slogan on his door that read "A blood debt must be repaid with blood." According to Wang's lawyer, the harassment forced him to resign from his job after his workplace became the subject of abuse, and oftentimes strangers in the street would confront him.

Wang's story isn't an isolated one, though according to at least one expert, large-scale human flesh engines do appear to be unique to China, partially as a result of China's "ingrained tradition of 'people's war' tracing back to Mao."

Could you see this becoming a trend in other parts of the world? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.

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online, china, human flesh search engine, vigilante

Posted 11/18/08 at 05:54:44 PM by Andy Salisbury

It’s an all to common story; boy gets Blu-ray player, boy wants Blu-ray movies, boy doesn’t want to pay full price for said movies so boy goes to China to snag bootlegs – we’ve all been there. But should you find yourself caught in this conundrum wait a moment before you do anything. Those fancy new Blu-ray movies you just got could very well be DVDs.

High-end movie pirates in China are ripping the legitimate Blu-ray movies (which use 1,080 lines of resolution) and then burning them onto writeable DVDs (which only support 720 lines of resolution). The swindlers are reportedly making roughly $7 a pop per movie.

Reports say none of the movies have made their way out of China yet.

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Blu-ray, dvd, pirates, china

Posted 10/23/08 at 03:21:17 PM by Alex Castle

Never ones to shy away from an uphill battle, Microsoft has recently been taking new steps to combat software piracy in China. They’ve launched a program, euphemistically called “Windows Genuine Advantage,” which blacks out users' screens if it discovers that they’re running pirated Microsoft software.

In China, a country where a large majority of computers are running pirated software, this move has, predictably,  caused quite an uproar.

The China Daily quoted Dong Zhengwei, a lawyer, as saying “[Microsoft is] the biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority … I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, but … They should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users.”

The quote references the fact that in China, a lot of the software sold commercially is actually pirated, meaning that users might be at risk of a blackout without even knowing it.

Is Microsoft just protecting their IP, or have they gone too far? Let us know after the jump.

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windows, microsoft, Software, piracy, china, anti-piracy

Posted 10/03/08 at 07:06:49 PM by Pulkit Chandna

TOM-Skype, the Chinese chapter of Skype, has been caught filtering and archiving text messages. The Chinese VoIP service provider has eight dedicated servers for storing messages that contain certain politically contentious keywords, according to a report published by The Information War Monitor, a Canadian organization that monitors internet censorship.

Tom-Skype, a joint venture between eBay and China’s TOM Online, also stores the usernames of all those people that exchange messages containing such sensitive keywords. Also, the service provider actively censors any politically sensitive keywords - some as harmless as “milk powder” - in messages. TOM-Skype doesn’t restrict itself to Chinese users but freely records messages and usernames of other Skype users from across the world as well (only those users that exchange "obnoxious" messages with Chinese users). To top it all, all the private data is available publicly as it is hosted on unencrypted web servers.

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Software, Skype, VOIP, china, censorship, messages, tom-skype

Posted 08/25/08 at 06:59:09 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Just before the Beijing Olympic Games drew to their spectacular coda, another case of internet censorship in China came forth. The Associated Press had reported last week that Chinese users were not able to access Apple’s iTunes website.

According to speculation, the ban came after a popular pro-Tibetan album, Songs for Peace, went on sale on iTunes on August 8. On Friday, Apple acknowledged the sudden unavailability of iTunes in China and said that it was investigating the matter. However, it is not known whether or not access to iTunes has been resumed there.

There was always a disconcerting political undertone to the Beijing Olympic Games besides a few controversies in the middle. Nevertheless, it was a great show with some scintillating performances by some of the world’s best sportspersons. I choose to be apolitical but you are free to voice your unbridled opinions in the comments section.

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Software, Internet, apple, itunes, china, online music store, web, ban, beijing olympics, songs for peace, tibet

Posted 08/05/08 at 04:54:13 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The Chinese have acceded to international media pressure and agreed to loosen their vice-like grip on the internet just for the Beijing Olympics. The international journalists will no longer have to contend with a censored version of the internet. It is very unusual for a country’s premier to himself hold a press conference and more so for the Chinese President.

But Hu Zintao, the Chinese President, took it upon himself to warn journalists about the consequences of breaching Chinese laws in thickly veiled terms. He told them that they should not "engage in activities which are incompatible with unity or community and public interests." The media fears that the Chinese government might renege on its promise of a free internet for the duration of the games. But our tenacious, ingenious journalist friends from world over are expected to freely employ anti-censorship tools to circumvent any hindrances.

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Software, media, china, olympics, tools, anti-censorship

Posted 07/30/08 at 04:47:34 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Hosting the Olympics is a matter of great pride for any country and more so for China. The Chinese authorities want the Beijing Olympics 2008 to project their country as highly progressive; and maybe, serve as a tawdry façade to rampant human rights abuse and gross denial of freedom. China has finally admitted that it has made no special allowances for international media personnel when it comes to internet curbs.

A government spokesperson announced on Wednesday that media persons will not be able to access many politically sensitive websites during their stay in China for the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese had initially shrugged aside the unavailability of many sites as a technical snag on part of the concerned websites.

The International Olympic Committee’s pantomime on the issue was briefly interrupted when it vowed to take up the matter with the Chinese authorities, after reports of the censorship first emerged. But it now remains in its timid stasis and continues to appease the Chinese.

Readers, at least you don't disappoint us like the IOC and, please, show your support for freedom of expression, in the comments section - geeks for freedom!

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Internet, media, china, censorship, websites, beijing olympics 2008, restricted access

Posted 06/26/08 at 09:27:40 AM by Chris Moody

StopBadware.org, using data from Google’s Safe Browsing initiative, analyzed over 200,000 websites that were engaged in badware behavior. The top two offenders on the list are China and the US. Their analysis found that a majority of the sites (52%) were based on a small number of Chinese networks. The U.S. accounted for 21% of infected sites however these were spread across a wide range of networks. It is interesting that in China 68% of the country’s infected sites are hosted on just three AS blocks versus the US, which has just 25% of it’s infected sites in it’s top three blocks. This just highlights the differences in the hosting spread.

Their research doesn’t specify a reason for this, however they “postulated that part of the reason for this could be the lack of economic incentives for Chinese hosting providers and site owners to inform their users of infected sites and/or to take action to clean or remove these sites.”

Fortunately, I go no where on the internet without my protection and a good dose of common sense.

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Software, news, malware, china, safer browsing, Badware