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US Media giant sued for distributing Chinese censorship software
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News and Politics :: Sino-American :: Human rights and personal freedoms :: News and Perspectives ::
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posted Friday, 9 October 2009
In June 2009 Beijing announced an ambitious plan to protect Mainland children from harmful websites.
A newly developed software package was to be rolled out on all new personal computers, and was to be installed on all publicly accessible systems with internet access. Be they in state owned facilities such as schools, or private premises such as internet cafes.
The software package, known as “Green Dam: Youth Escort” was to be the ultimate domestic youth protection tool, and was set to actively prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography. However, the software turned out to anything but.
Far from being an “ultimate” solution, Green Dam was quickly found deeply flawed. Its image classification subroutines - code designed to detect pornographic images – had an embarrassing tendency to censor harmless images of pink pigs – due to their human like skin tones – yet would allow through full frontal nudity by African American women: because their darker skin tones were not recognized as being human skin.
It was also quickly discovered that, far from being a youth protection tool, Green Dam's primary purpose was as a censorship tool. Of the 9,200 restricted words and phrases included in the initial release of Green Dam only 2,700 were related to harmful web content such as pornography. The remaining 6,500 words related to sensitive issues such as human rights, democracy, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or the FLG spiritual movement.
Possibly even more humiliating, it was also quickly discovered that Green Dam was not a domestic product at all. Large chunks of it were in fact written by an American company. Which is where things this article really gets started.
Code Theft?
In June 2009, researchers with the US University of Michigan dissected a public release of the software and discovered that its page filtration subroutines - a critical component of Green Dam - were not Chinese in origin.
After some investigation researchers linked the routines to “Cybersitter”. A well established internet filtering package produced by Santa Barbara based Solid Oak software.
The researchers contacted Solid Oak, and it's own engineers soon reached the same conclusion. That approximately 3000 lines of code had been directly ported from Cybersitter to Green Damwithout Solid Oak's consent.
In response to this, Solid Oak contacted US based PC manufacturers with China operations and issued them with cessation letters, instructing them not to package Green with their China-side products, and threatening them of legal action if they did.
As things turned out, Beijing quickly scaled back its original plans in the face of considerable public resistance, and due to the discovery several inherent faults in the software that left systems open to attack by computer hackers.
Plans to force PC retailers and manufacturers to bundle Green dam with their system were withdrawn. Thus saving US PC manufacturers from a Catch-22 “Sued if you do, forced out if you don't” situation.
However, Green Dam wasn't completely shelved and several tens of thousands of copies were distributed to schools and internet cafes through Mainland software outlets.
In response to this distribution Solid Oak filed a lawsuit against US big media company CBS. Charging them with the illegal distribution of proprietary material through the Chinese wing of its child company ZDNet.
Solid Oak also accused CBS of using said material to increase its advertizing revenue, and to upsize its foothold in the Chinese market.
Solid Oak's suit calls for the payment of $39.99 (The retail price of Cybersitter), for each of the 31,000 copies of Green Dam distributed that ZDNet's own statistics indicate it distributed over the internet, plus additional costs and damages.
Key to solid Oak's case are two files taken from Green Dam that specifically reference Cybersitter by name. Along with 2,972 lines of code taken directly from Cybersitter.
CBS have denied culpability for the infringements carried out against Solid Oak, and have moved to have the suit dismissed on the grounds that it was merely the agent through which the software was distributed, rather than the infringing agency.
CBS instead ventured that Solid Oak should directly sue the Chinese government and the Mainland companies responsible for the infringement itself.
Ironically, US big media companies such as CBS have made numerous attempts and complaints against software manufacturers and content hosting services that have acted as distributors for content belonging to them: such as pirated music or movies. And have often stated the belief that any agency that enables or allows an intellectual property based infringement to take place is as complicit in the infringement as the individual who committed the infringement.
China watchers not that Solid Oak's first suit was filed against a US company and under US law. Where a case would be much easier to bring due in part to both companies coming under the same national law, but also due to America's draconian copyright laws.
It is not yet clear if Solid Oak will file a case directly against any of the Mainland players. Such an attempt would be much harder, and much more costly, due to jurisdictional issues, and to the intrinsic bias of Chinese law towards domestic companies in IPR suits.
The suit was filed on 08 October 2009 and is officially documented as “CyberSitter LLC vs. CBS Interactive Inc., 9-cv- 7245” a the Central District of California (LA).
Other Controversies?
While Green Dam has attracted considerable criticism for its censorship of sensitive issues, Cybersitter has proved to be similarly controversial in the US, and multiple accusations have been laid against both the software and Solid Oak itself.
In July 1996 US journalists Brock Meeks and Declan McCullagh revealed that Cybersitter routinely blacklisted advocating LGBT right.
Solid Oak responded to this revelation with a lawsuit claiming copyright violation. They also blocked Peacefire.org: a popular free speech website that covered the story. Adding it to a list of sites that supposedly contained pornography, despite the fact it contained no adult material.
Solid Oak also attempted blackmail the Peacefire's ISP. Threatening to blacklist all of the sites that it hosted unless Peacefire's was off line.
Solid Oak was forced to back down after the ISP took up legal representation.
A newly developed software package was to be rolled out on all new personal computers, and was to be installed on all publicly accessible systems with internet access. Be they in state owned facilities such as schools, or private premises such as internet cafes.
The software package, known as “Green Dam: Youth Escort” was to be the ultimate domestic youth protection tool, and was set to actively prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography. However, the software turned out to anything but.
Far from being an “ultimate” solution, Green Dam was quickly found deeply flawed. Its image classification subroutines - code designed to detect pornographic images – had an embarrassing tendency to censor harmless images of pink pigs – due to their human like skin tones – yet would allow through full frontal nudity by African American women: because their darker skin tones were not recognized as being human skin.
It was also quickly discovered that, far from being a youth protection tool, Green Dam's primary purpose was as a censorship tool. Of the 9,200 restricted words and phrases included in the initial release of Green Dam only 2,700 were related to harmful web content such as pornography. The remaining 6,500 words related to sensitive issues such as human rights, democracy, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or the FLG spiritual movement.
Possibly even more humiliating, it was also quickly discovered that Green Dam was not a domestic product at all. Large chunks of it were in fact written by an American company. Which is where things this article really gets started.
Code Theft?
In June 2009, researchers with the US University of Michigan dissected a public release of the software and discovered that its page filtration subroutines - a critical component of Green Dam - were not Chinese in origin.
After some investigation researchers linked the routines to “Cybersitter”. A well established internet filtering package produced by Santa Barbara based Solid Oak software.
The researchers contacted Solid Oak, and it's own engineers soon reached the same conclusion. That approximately 3000 lines of code had been directly ported from Cybersitter to Green Damwithout Solid Oak's consent.
In response to this, Solid Oak contacted US based PC manufacturers with China operations and issued them with cessation letters, instructing them not to package Green with their China-side products, and threatening them of legal action if they did.
"We're contacting Dell, HP and others to stop compromised material being shipped."
Brian Milburn
Brian Milburn
As things turned out, Beijing quickly scaled back its original plans in the face of considerable public resistance, and due to the discovery several inherent faults in the software that left systems open to attack by computer hackers.
Plans to force PC retailers and manufacturers to bundle Green dam with their system were withdrawn. Thus saving US PC manufacturers from a Catch-22 “Sued if you do, forced out if you don't” situation.
However, Green Dam wasn't completely shelved and several tens of thousands of copies were distributed to schools and internet cafes through Mainland software outlets.
In response to this distribution Solid Oak filed a lawsuit against US big media company CBS. Charging them with the illegal distribution of proprietary material through the Chinese wing of its child company ZDNet.
“This action arises from one of the largest cases of software piracy in history, wherein two Chinese companies, backed by the Chinese government, stole approximately 3,000 lines of code from a small American company's software program, and disseminated it to tens of millions of end users in China and elsewhere with the willing participation of Internet sites such as CBS Interactive, Inc.'s ("CBS" or "Defendant") ZDNet China.
Statement, Solid Oak Software (US)
Statement, Solid Oak Software (US)
Solid Oak also accused CBS of using said material to increase its advertizing revenue, and to upsize its foothold in the Chinese market.
“CBS derives significant financial benefits from ZDNet's unauthorized distribution of Plaintiffs' copyrighted materials to the vast Chinese-speaking population, including from increased advertising revenue, increased 'draw' of customers to its site, and increased access to the Chinese speaking market”
Statement, Solid Oak Software (US)
Statement, Solid Oak Software (US)
Solid Oak's suit calls for the payment of $39.99 (The retail price of Cybersitter), for each of the 31,000 copies of Green Dam distributed that ZDNet's own statistics indicate it distributed over the internet, plus additional costs and damages.
Key to solid Oak's case are two files taken from Green Dam that specifically reference Cybersitter by name. Along with 2,972 lines of code taken directly from Cybersitter.
"I spent a good deal of the weekend with another engineer trying to find if it was an honest mistake. But someone made a 100% conscious effort to do this. This is not some accident"
Brian Milburn, Founder, Solid Oak (USA)
Brian Milburn, Founder, Solid Oak (USA)
CBS have denied culpability for the infringements carried out against Solid Oak, and have moved to have the suit dismissed on the grounds that it was merely the agent through which the software was distributed, rather than the infringing agency.
CBS instead ventured that Solid Oak should directly sue the Chinese government and the Mainland companies responsible for the infringement itself.
“As is evident from the complaint, this is a dispute between Cybersitter, the two Chinese companies that allegedly copied their filtering technology, as well as the Chinese government that backed these companies and the distribution of the allegedly infringing material”
Sarah Cain, Spokesperson, CBS.
Sarah Cain, Spokesperson, CBS.
Ironically, US big media companies such as CBS have made numerous attempts and complaints against software manufacturers and content hosting services that have acted as distributors for content belonging to them: such as pirated music or movies. And have often stated the belief that any agency that enables or allows an intellectual property based infringement to take place is as complicit in the infringement as the individual who committed the infringement.
China watchers not that Solid Oak's first suit was filed against a US company and under US law. Where a case would be much easier to bring due in part to both companies coming under the same national law, but also due to America's draconian copyright laws.
It is not yet clear if Solid Oak will file a case directly against any of the Mainland players. Such an attempt would be much harder, and much more costly, due to jurisdictional issues, and to the intrinsic bias of Chinese law towards domestic companies in IPR suits.
The suit was filed on 08 October 2009 and is officially documented as “CyberSitter LLC vs. CBS Interactive Inc., 9-cv- 7245” a the Central District of California (LA).
Other Controversies?
While Green Dam has attracted considerable criticism for its censorship of sensitive issues, Cybersitter has proved to be similarly controversial in the US, and multiple accusations have been laid against both the software and Solid Oak itself.
In July 1996 US journalists Brock Meeks and Declan McCullagh revealed that Cybersitter routinely blacklisted advocating LGBT right.
Solid Oak responded to this revelation with a lawsuit claiming copyright violation. They also blocked Peacefire.org: a popular free speech website that covered the story. Adding it to a list of sites that supposedly contained pornography, despite the fact it contained no adult material.
Solid Oak also attempted blackmail the Peacefire's ISP. Threatening to blacklist all of the sites that it hosted unless Peacefire's was off line.
Solid Oak was forced to back down after the ISP took up legal representation.
View Comments/Add a Comment (1)
1. YIFEI left...
Monday, 2 November 2009 7:21 am
The article addresses two controversial issues in China: the internet
restriction and the copy right protection. On one hand, the internet
provides a public sphere for Chinese citizens. The first time Chinese
people have the opportunity to share their opinions with each other and
access to unlimited and unrestricted information with political and
cultural diversity. The first time Chinese people synchronizes their
watches with the Western world. It is a huge challenge for Chinese
Communist Party, whose ideology, socialism, is the opposite of capitalism;
and more importantly, who were born with the fear of the invasion of
Western ideology. As a result of fear, Chinese Communist Party knows it
must do something. It cannot allow the internet to expose Chinese citizens
to the diversity of information that potentially threatened its
sovereignty. Or in the other word, it cannot allow anything beyond its
control, including internet. Therefore, the internet restriction comes.