Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 19 submissions in the queue.

China Detains Man for Selling Service to Evade Internet Firewall

posted by martyb on Tuesday September 19 2017, @11:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-the-ones-you-did-NOT-catch? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Chinese authorities have detained a software developer for selling computer services that allow internet users to evade China's "Great Firewall," which blocks access to thousands of websites, from Facebook to Twitter to some news outlets, a media report said Monday.

The software developer, who is from the coastal province of Jiangsu, near Shanghai, was arrested in late August and held for three days for building a small business to sell virtual private networks, the Global Times newspaper reported, citing the official Xinhua news agency. VPNs create encrypted links between computers and allow Chinese web users to see blocked sites by hiding the address from government filters.

Subscribers paid 10 yuan, or about $1.50, for one month of the developer's service. Authorities also seized the developer's earnings, which totaled 1,080 yuan, or about $165.

Some internet businessmen have faced far harsher punishments: Earlier this year, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who sold VPN services in Dongguan, near Hong Kong, was sentenced to nine months in prison.

How far away from having this happen in the West are we, really?

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
China Detains Man for Selling Service to Evade Internet Firewall | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 65 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 20 2017, @12:15AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 20 2017, @12:15AM (#570446)

    was immediately necessary

    This would be a good point to mention that the reason the banks were in hot water was that that what the banksters were doing was CRIMINAL.

    When this happened years before with the Savings & Loans, the feds moved in and took over the S&Ls.
    S&L executives were sent to prison.

    ...and Iceland didn't bail out their banksters.
    Again, the crooks were sent to prison (26 by my last count).
    Iceland had to tighten their belts for a bit, but they're doing OK now.

    What USA.gov did WRT banksters was Neoliberalism/Crony Capitalism.
    The crooks and their enablers should all be in prison.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 20 2017, @12:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 20 2017, @12:43AM (#570460)

    What USA.gov did WRT banksters was Neoliberalism/Crony Capitalism.
    The crooks and their enablers should all be in prison.

    I don't want to pay those scumbags' room and board.

    I might be willing to cough up a couple of bucks for a bullet for each of them, tho.