COPYCENSE

“Third time unlucky? Yahoo!, like several other giants of the Web, has seen its share of criticism about the way it juggles both its Chinese business and requests from Beijing. Now the group led by Chief Executive Terry Semel is in the thick of it again, and this for the third time. A free press advocacy group has published a verdict from Chinese authorities that may implicate Yahoo! as having provided evidence for the Communist state to prosecute one of its users for subversion.

“Jiang Lijun, 39, is serving a four-year prison term after being convicted in November 2003. The verdict published on the Reporters Without Borders Web site and translated by the Dui Hua Foundation said that Jiang Lijun had ‘used the Internet… to promote so-called Western-style democracy,’ and ‘advocate that our country implement a multiparty system.'”

See also:

Reporters Without Borders. Yahoo! Implicated in Third Cyberdissident Trial — U.S. Company’s Collaboration With Chinese Courts Highlighted in Jiang Lijun Case. April 19, 2006.

Associated Press. Group: Yahoo Helped China, Again. Wired News. April 19, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.