[Macworld]

Post your comments for Apple may be exempt from China's Web filter mandate here

[Speed_Racer]

I can't wait until somebody writes some great malware that infects all the computers running Green Dam. The security vulnerabilities are already well known. When all of the suckers in China who choose to run it (which thankfully most of the people there are smart enough to disdain) find their hard drives wiped or their bank accounts emptied, there will be such a hue and cry. Russian child hackers, start your engines!

[ChrisLJ]

No need for this on a Mac.
Apple does not allow that kind of stuff on their products.

[danviento]

If they ever do install such monitoring software, how long do you think it will take before some kid asks in an american forum how to get rid of it and one of us helps him?
My guess: 2 minutes flat.
At least with Mac OS X, you can always reset the root password using the install CD, and use a Terminal shell to blow the program and any related files away, no matter what permissions it was given. Hats off to UNIX.

[HandyMac]

"Apple does not allow that kind of stuff on their products."
Sure they will, if they want to sell Macs in China. When I first heard about this, I suspected there wasn't a Mac version, but I'm guessing there will be soon; the Chinese government is not about to let anyone slip through the net.
Of course, it's all to "protect the children." China is learning quickly from the West.
Back in the 90s when Apple was running the Think Different ad series, wth photos of various "celebrities" (I thought it was dumb, but then I don't care for the "I'm a Mac" ads either), they had one with the Dalai Lama. China complained, and Apple pulled the ad (but not before it was printed on the back cover of Time magazine, so I have one on my wall). Apple's not going to take a "principled" stand on this. When China says "frog", everyone jumps.

[ChrisLJ]

When I said Apple doesn't allow that stuff I was referring to porn, not the censoring software. It was my sad attempt at humor influenced by the pulling of the 'Hottest Girls' app and others. Sorry for the unclear post.

[mr_rsu]

Why bother doing business with China as long as the government is engaging and participating in this absolute authoritarian practices on its citizens and foreign visitors? I would tell Apple, Google, Cisco and other companies to bail out right now. It's a money-losing prospect for them as long as the Chinese government continues to engage this statist charade in the name of "social order".

[mr_rsu]

And here's another thing that most people don't know about: the government of China has an army of hackers doing everything they can do to exploit, hack and crack into the US defense and national security capabilities by using the same American technologies! Cisco, are you listening? I guess not. Global business partnership trumps national security at any cost.

[geoffjefe]

mr_rsu said:

Why bother doing business with China as long as the government is engaging and participating in this absolute authoritarian practices on its citizens and foreign visitors? I would tell Apple, Google, Cisco and other companies to bail out right now. It's a money-losing prospect for them as long as the Chinese government continues to engage this statist charade in the name of "social order".

I beg to differ. It must not be a money-losing prospect for companies to do business in China. In fact, companies probably make very much money by offering their products for use/sale in China. This is, after all, how businesses work. Their goal is to make money. The decisions about when and where to sell their products are foundationally based in maximizing profit.

[bear90039]

Apple is under China's command. All of their products are made in China. Every last one of them. Why else does every mac have a chinese text converter (that can not be removed? China will find a way to bring them to attention.

[Rhywun]

Of course, it's all to "protect the children."

I very much doubt that, as KPO'M pointed out. It's easier to understand the intent of this sort of thing when you realize that every action taken by The Party is expressly designed to keep The Party in power, and nothing more. The Internet in particular terrifies them, in that it provides easy access to information that is otherwise strictly censored. Thus, we have this clumsy, heavy-handed attempt at "protecting" the people which reeks of desperation. As for Apple, of course they will ship this software if it gets ported to OS X, because companies have to follow the laws of countries in which they do business.

[Voe]

Funny, when I read this article it gave me just the opposite impression, namely
that the software was in fact a devious means of hampering the Microsoft offering. I
read elsewhere that the Chinese government favored the use of Linux OS'
as being more reasonably priced than the Redmond stuff, (the reader is
free to interpret that in his, or her, own lights). As danviento wrote above, Mac and Linux being based on Unix principles, the Dam Green stuff would get hacked out on the double anyway. It would all be good fun except that such manipulation on the part of "the autorities" is a pitifull waste of time, energy and intelligence, including such a weighty Wikipedia entry; I mean software that classes pigs hind legs as pornopgraphic, where do we go from here?, we should ban imports of porc bellies made in China, that'll teach 'em!.