Google and the other giants of the web go to the mat to defend freedom of speech (even unpleasant speech) on the web--and win:

http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/11/21/172644.shtml

While this can be applauded, just why are the free speech rights of Americans so precious and the free speech rights of the Chinese so worthless?

Is it just the money? Tell us human rights for the Chinese aren't for sale so cheap, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc!

This was purely in their ("Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.") own self-interest. If the court had ruled against the woman, the ruling *may* have been stretched to apply against search engines for "republishing" content that's deemed inflammatory, racist, etc., and therefore allow people to sue the search engine for libel. I also note that the article you pointed out just notes that the search engines supported the woman's defense; it said nothing about going "to the mat" to defend her.

This has nothing to do with "money," or the "precious"-ness of American free speech rights versus Chinese rights. The technology giants, in this case, are simply acting under American law to cover their asses, so to speak. In China, I presume they would act similarly under Chinese law for their own interest.

To speak rather frankly, I'm somewhat tired of periodic attempts to drag the issue of human rights in China into every case that search engines are involved in, with Google in particular. Especially rather weak connections such as this.