US Company Burned by China Web Filter Plans Rival Product

From PC World: A U.S. company whose software code was allegedly stolen in China by a controversial, government-backed Internet filtering program will hit back by launching a rival product for a low price in China, the company said late Sunday.

Solid Oak Software, which has said its code was copied in a program that China ordered be bundled with all new PCs, is exploring ways to offer its own Web filter for free or at a very low price in China, company President Brian Milburn, said in an e-mail. The Solid Oak program, called CyberSitter and targeted at parents, will be offered in languages including Chinese in a version due out next month.

A Chinese version of the product would compete with Green Dam Youth Escort, the program that Solid Oak says copied its code and that China originally ordered PC makers to include with all new computers sold in the country from July this year. The Chinese government had paid the program's developers to allow all PC buyers to use the software for free for one year. But under heavy pressure from foreign PC makers and the U.S. government, China indefinitely postponed the mandate just hours before it was set to take effect.

Major PC makers including Lenovo and Acer began bundling Green Dam with new PCs until this month. The program, which China said was meant to protect children from online pornography, was also found to block politically sensitive material such as negative references to a former Chinese president.

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