Microsoft to the Rescue Again

Dear Bill,

Although you seem to get it when it comes to charities that treat diseases and such, you still seem somewhat confused on that fact that with great power and riches come great responsibilities. I know you stand to become the richest man in this AND the next world once China decides to put your software in every citizen's home, but Ithink you underestimate how your caving in to the oppresive elements of the Chinese government is going to cost you in PR throughout the rest of the world. In other words, what does it gain a corporation to corner the market only to lose its customers' respect?

Microsoft Corp. has shut down the Internet journal of a Chinese blogger that discussed politically sensitive issues, including a recent strike at a Beijing newspaper.

The action came amid criticism by free-speech activists of foreign technology companies that help the communist government enforce censorship or silence dissent in order to be allowed into China's market.

Microsoft's Web log-hosting service shut down the blog at the Chinese government's request, said Brooke Richardson, group product manager with Microsoft's MSN online division at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

Although Beijing has supported Internet use for education and business, it fiercely polices content. Filters block objectionable foreign Web sites and regulations ban subversive and pornographic content and require service providers to enforce censorship rules.

"When we operate in markets around the world, we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms," Richardson said.

Richardson said the blog was shut down Dec. 30 or Dec. 31 for violating Microsoft's code of conduct, which states that users must be in compliance with local laws in the country in which the user is based.

And if China changes it law to require spying software on every desktop, are you going to participate in compliance with that as well? Microsoft's code of conduct needs some rethinking, IMO. Local idiots can pass all kinds of laws. At a certain point American corporations should reflect American values. China can declare anything "subversive" rendering Microsoft little more than a henchman on a leash, shutting down blogs left and right.

How can you stomach doing this? Really?

---signed---
The First Amendment

Comments

[spartikus]

It's the free market at work!

[Anderson]

I'd forgotten this. Way to get "Man of the Year," Bill!

[Gary Farber]

"...that fact that with great power and riches come great responsibilities."

I have to point out, by the way, that you are quoting that ancient philospher, Stanly Lieber, aka "Stan Lee," speaking in the voice of, yes, Spider-Man. His Uncle Ben, anyway. "With great power comes great responsibility."

Don't bother googling for antecedents, they're all indirect, and plenty of folks have looked into it over the years. (Although, hey, knock yourself out, anyone, if you like; you'll certainly find variations and quasiquotes, to be sure.)

It's wiser than "Hulk smash," to be sure, and has the virtue of being correct.

[Gary Farber]

Stanley Lieber, darn it.

[gwangung]

Actually, Stan Lee now legally (just to be pedantic).

[Edward_]

you just wanted to spell Spiderman wrong again, didn't you Gary?

[Gary Farber]

Stan Lee is now legally a pederast? Damn!

Whoops, slight mis-cross-reading of threads. It happens with a towel over one's head.

I do quite like both Spider-Man movies, though. I think they work simply as films, but I can't say I see them without bias. (Although, in comparison, I wouldn't recommend Fantastic Four to anyone who didn't grow up on the comic book.)

Don't start me. I'll have to talk about what works about Dr. Doom and what doesn't, and we'll all be sorry. Not to mention that Willem Dafoe should never be put behind an immobile mask.

[Mo MacArbie]

Ugh. "With great power..." Did the movie Spiderman have a moral? It must have been too subtle for me.

[Gary Farber]

"Did the movie Spiderman have a moral?"

Probably not, but the movie Spider-Man certainly did, and it was the entire point. It wasn't remotely subtle, either. Edward gave it away.

I'm sure that it was invisible to those who approached it with hands clapped over their eyes.

[Mo MacArbie]

Hmm, I'll have to recalibrate the sarcasm emitters and smiley emoters then. ;) Ah, much better.

[DaveC]

Edward_ posting again is sort of like having a substitute teacher, and the bad child in the class is alway trying to challenge him, not that I know anything about Spiderman vs Spider-Man.

[Iron Lungfish]

It's totally "Spider-Man." Batman has changed from "Bat-Man" to "Batman" over the ages, but Peter Parker's alter ego is still hyphenated. I have Gary Farber and the terrifyingly pedantic John Byrne to back me up here.

Back on topic: according to Brooke Richardson, the blog was taken down at the Chinese government's request, and not on MS's own initiative (via The Peking Duck). This is still pretty queasy, but paints a slightly different picture - it's not Microsoft jumping to censor a site to avoid irritating Beijing, it's Beijing specifically making a request and Microsoft bowing to that request. Microsoft is guilty of compromising its principles under pressure, but not guilty of a reflexive urge to censor.

[Gary Farber]

"you just wanted to spell Spiderman wrong again, didn't you Gary?"

Hulk smash.

(I'm actually pretty annoyed that I spent $10 the other week to buy the Hulk computer game, so I could take out my aggression on pictures and sounds on the screen and speakers, and hope to do so a bit less on silly words from silly, but real, people on the same screen, only to find that it crashes in mid-installation, and the other hope found on the internet is messages from other people who have experienced the same crash, while the company support page ignores the entire issue. But so it goes, no matter that that was a huge proportion of my entertainment budget for 2006. So it goes.) Oh, well, the mountains are still beautiful, and free.