for backgrounder. read here

http://blogoscoped.com/forum/19697.html

I wonder if we might actually see the search engines unite to fight such a law if it looks like it could reasonably pass. The number of potential lost customers would be huge (and correspondingly, huge potential revenue loss).

It would also be a slap in the face of this: "Although the law of the United States does not prohibit participation in an embargo, it does prohibit participation in a secondary embargo. This occurs when one country pressures a business to stop doing business with a third country over issues which the business is not directly involved. Not only is an American business required not to participate in a secondary embargo, but is also required to report all attempts to get a business to participate in a secondary embargo. The situation which led to these laws are attempts by Arab countries to prevent American companies from doing business with Israel." (from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo)

(Somehow the first comment I posted created a new forum thread rather than appearing here)

Most people can't read between the lines on this issue. The truth is
much more simple. The U.S. government wants control of the internet.
That means they need to get control and leverage over big search engines.

How do you get control of search engines that are abiding by U.S. law.
Simple, draft laws that they are not abiding by. Currently Sen.
Christopher Smith (R-NJ) is drafting legislation that will put search
engines in hot water. This is all orchestrated so that the government
can get leverage over the search industry.

Let's also get one thing straight. Since when has the government cared
what U.S. companies are doing in China? And why just Google, Yahoo, and
Microsoft search? There are dozens of Fortune 500 companies that have
been conforming to Chinese regulations for years. What about them?

Conclusion: Google and other search engines will lose this fight and
evenutually be forced to hand over key information about how they
operate. Once the government has reverse engineered search ranking
algorithims, they will be able to manipulate search results at their
pleasure. People will then see the results that the U.S. government
wants them to see.

Welcome to the new world order that is controled so that people never
know the truth.

Don't believe me? Read all about it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/17/security.rumsfeld.reut/index.html

Dan : its not about control. Rather a risk mngt strategy, its a lttle bit more complicated then just control

Kind of pitiful to see those internet companies at the Congressional hearing squirming on their hot seats advocating such a law. Sort of like "stop me before I kill again".

One Congressman suggested that all the companies should have banded together and refused to be Beijing's censors.

That would take ethics, a real "do no evil" attitude. Even after Enron, that's not a big focus in big corporations. We thought Google would be different, because they led us to believe so. Thus unfortunately we need the internet freedom law.

Those companies would make so much MORE money if China was truly free. Refusing to engineer the regime's censorship machine would hasten that day.

Then "do no evil" wouldn't be a joke today, and Shi Tao, Li Zhi and others would still be free.

The Chinese government wouldn't lose anything if international search engines left. It would just mean they can exert greater control by pressuring the local search engines.