China syndromeSolid Oak sues China, Lenovo for stealing Green Dam code
The Chinese government wanted to install a Green Dam around the computers used by Chinese – officially for the purpose of preventing the spread of pornography and other unseemly digital contents; the plan was abandoned after it became clear that the true purpose was to control the spread of political contents and help the government better monitor political dissent; U.S. software security firm charges that in the process of creating the dam, the Chinese government and Chinese companies – but also several non-Chinese companies which stood to gain from participating in the scheme — stole its code; it mow demands $2.2 billion in compensation
When you hear the word “China,” terms such as “business etiquette” and “respect for intellectual property” are not the first to leap to mind. We have written many stories about the concerted campaign by the different agencies of the Chinese government – chief among them China’s sprawling intelligence apparatus — to hasten China’s rise to a position of global prominence by stealing, pilfering, or otherwise illegally acquiring Western intellectual property and industrial secrets and hand them over to Chinese companies so that these companies can then better compete against their Western rivals.
The latest case: A U.S. firm is taking legal action against seven PC makers and the Chinese government alleging much of the code for China’s Green Dam scheme was stolen from their products.
John Oates writes that Solid Oak software, which makes Cybersitter, wants a hefty $2.2 billion in damages from Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, BenQ, and the Chinese government. Greg Fayer, Cybersitter’s attorney, said: “This lawsuit aims to strike a blow against the all-too-common practices of foreign software manufacturers and distributors who believe that they can violate the intellectual property rights of small American companies with impunity without being brought to justice in US courts.”
The Chinese government proposed compulsory installation of Green Dam filtering on all computers sold in the country. The scheme was eventually abandoned in the face of criticism that its real purpose was to strengthen government control of information and services available to Chinese citizens rather than protecting children from unsuitable content.
Oates notes that although we can’t see the Chinese government coughing up damages any time soon the lawsuit should not be seen as just a publicity stunt. Cybersitter has long complained that its intellectual property had been infringed — it sent cease and desist letters to Dell and HP back in June to stop them pre-installing Green Dam filters. It also took action against CBS for providing a link to a download site for the software. The company complains that some 3,000 lines of code within Green Dam come from its Solid Oak software.
The complaint, which CNet has here, accuses the defendants of conspiracy as well as copyright offences. It names two Chinese distributors along with the OEMs and the People’s Republic of China. Solid Oak also alleges several thousand attempts were made to access its servers from computers based in China — including one attempted intrusion in May 2009 which saw 2,500 access attempts within 27 minutes from within China’s Ministry of Health.
