[Dialogue] [Fwd: [IP] Face to Face with the Great Firewall of China]
jim rippey
jimripsr at qwest.net
Mon May 2 17:37:27 EDT 2005
This is indeed scary. And worst of all, it is another example of what is
happening all over the world, very much including here in Dubya's USA. I am
trying to connect the related dots and this is useful input.
Jim Rippey in Bellevue, NE
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Reames" <popgoesweasel at coralpost.net>
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 8:46 AM
Subject: [Dialogue] [Fwd: [IP] Face to Face with the Great Firewall of
China]
> This is the scariest article that I have read in a loooong time!
>
> Ed Reames
> La Rivera de Belén
> Costa Rica
> 745 Central American Time
> 21C Clear 78% Humidity
> Wind 11kph from the NE
> Pressure 30.03
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [IP] Face to Face with the Great Firewall of China
> Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 08:10:09 -0400
> From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
> Reply-To: dave at farber.net
> To: Ip <ip at v2.listbox.com>
> References: <p062007cdbe9b53eaf38c@[10.0.1.54]>
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Michael Geist <mgeist at pobox.com>
> Date: May 2, 2005 7:21:16 AM EDT
> To: dave at farber.net
> Subject: Face to Face with the Great Firewall of China
>
>
> Dave,
>
> Of possible interest - my regular Law Bytes column reflects on a recent
> trip to China and the frustrations I encountered dealing with censorship
> of the Internet. Despite similar appearances with broadband access in my
> Beijing hotel, I found sites blocked, email downloads short-circuited,
> and Google searches cut off.
>
> The column (posted below) notes that the experience was a powerful
> reminder that unfettered Internet access is far more fragile than is
> commonly perceived. I try to connect the Chinese firewall experience to
> recent events in Canada (including web-based disclosures of information
> subject to publication bans and law enforcement authorities for greater
> surveillance powers) and conclude that it would be mistake to think that
> the North American Internet will always remain as free as China's is
> censored. The challenge in the months and years ahead will be to promote
> a vision of online freedom through lobbying for greater access abroad and
> rejecting unnecessary and potentially dangerous limits at home.
>
> A freely available hyperlinked version of the column is at
> http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/may22005.html
> Toronto Star reg. version at
> <http://geistchinafirewall.notlong.com>
>
> MG
>
> FACE TO FACE WITH THE GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINA
>
> May 2, 2005
>
> Michael Geist
>
> As the Internet was taking flight in the early 1990s, John Gilmore, one
> of the co-founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading
> online civil liberties group, is credited with having coined the infamous
> phrase that "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes
> around it." Gilmore's view has since been regularly invoked whenever
> there are failed attempts to limit the dissemination of information.
>
> Beginning with a string of cases dating back to the Paul Bernardo trial
> in the mid-1990s, the Internet has undermined court-ordered publication
> bans in Canada with surprising frequency. The latest incident occurred
> last month when a U.S. website posted evidence from the Gomery inquiry
> that was subject to a publication ban. The ban was lifted within days,
> however, as Judge Gomery acknowledged what had become obvious to all -
> supposedly secret testimony was readily available to anyone with Internet
> access.
>
> While these events seemingly affirm the notion that the Internet is
> beyond the reach of governments and courts, my recent trip to China
> provided a powerful reminder that unfettered Internet access is far more
> fragile than is commonly perceived. China, which boasts the world's
> second largest Internet user base, is currently home to more than 94
> million Internet users, yet their Internet is far different from ours.
>
> These differences are not immediately obvious. My hotel in Beijing
> featured high-speed Internet access much like that offered in hotels
> throughout North America. Logging onto the network was a snap and I
> quickly found that bandwidth speeds were comparable to those found at
> home.
>
> It was once I sought to access common news sites that I found myself face
> to face with the "Great Firewall of China." Google News, a popular
> aggregator of news stories from around the world, would not load into my
> browser, apparently blocked by a filtering system that employs 30,000
> people to regularly monitor Internet traffic and content. Similarly,
> while the BBC website would load, attempts to access news stories on that
> site yielded only error messages.
>
> My frustration increased when I attempted to download my own email.
> While I was able to access my Canadian-based mail server storing my
> messages, the download was short-circuited midway as I suddenly lost the
> connection. Although I initially thought that perhaps the error lay at
> the Canadian end, when the experience repeated itself, it became clear
> that the Chinese system was filtering my email messages and cutting off
> the connection.
>
> Having experienced limits in accessing both news and email, it came as
> little surprise to find that the search engines were subject to similar
> restrictions. Searches for articles on circumventing the Chinese filters
> yielded a long list of results, none of which could be opened. Moreover,
> inputting politically sensitive words such as the "Falun Gong" cut me off
> from the search engines completely.
>
> While I found using the Chinese Internet exceptionally frustrating, most
> people I spoke to were resigned to an Internet with limits. They live
> with the fact that in recent months the government has shut down
> thousands of Internet cafes, an important point of access for many
> citizens. Many noted that the censorship "only" affected political
> information, but that business could be conducted online unimpeded. At
> one academic conference, Chinese law professors even spoke of the
> desirability of increased content regulation and supported government
> limits on search engine results.
>
> As groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders
> regularly seek to remind us, the Chinese Internet is not unique.
> Countries throughout the Middle East and in parts of Asia employ similar
> technologies to limit their citizens' access to a medium that most
> Canadians now take for granted.
>
> It would be a mistake, however, to think that the Canadian Internet will
> always remain just as free as China's is censored. Canadian law
> enforcement officials are actively lobbying for a series of "lawful
> access" reforms that will provide authorities with dramatically increased
> Internet surveillance powers. These include mandating real- time network
> surveillance capabilities on Canada's biggest Internet service providers
> and providing authorities with the right to demand subscriber information
> without the need to obtain a prior court order.
>
> While it would be unfair to characterize the lawful access proposal as
> comparable to the monitoring and censorship used in the Chinese Internet,
> my experience provided a sobering reminder of the dangers inherent in
> increased surveillance and weakened judicial oversight.
> The Internet may be accessible from Toronto to Beijing, yet people in
> these two cities do not access the same Internet. The challenge in the
> months and years ahead will be to promote Gilmore's vision of online
> freedom through lobbying for greater access abroad and rejecting
> unnecessary and potentially dangerous limits at home.
>
> --
> **********************************************************************
> Professor Michael A. Geist
> Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
> University of Ottawa Law School, Common Law Section
> 57 Louis Pasteur St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5
> Tel: 613-562-5800, x3319 Fax: 613-562-5124
> mgeist at pobox.com http://www.michaelgeist.ca
>
>
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