Chinese Government Already Arresting Dissidents Before Olympics

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com - If you remember the video I made where I talked about how the Chinese Government could use IP address data from the Viacom / Google lawsuit to find dissidents and arrest or kill them --

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ua_XT1RJIE

Then brace yourself because the Chinese have already arrested two Internet dissidents Du Daobin and Ye Guozhu and have done so before the Bejing Olympics.

Both dissidents were arrested for "subversion" or writing against the actions of the Chinese Government. Such actions bring into focus the value of the "annoymous blogger" because the idea is that by being just that, one can explain and report in a dissident fashion without the kind of retribution these two gentleman are facing.

But the actions of some using the term annoymous have threatened the very ability to use that term. As a momentary aside, people using that term must take care not to abuse its use for mean-sprited purposes.

China is clearly concerned about its image during the Olympics and as such does not want dissidents exposed to foreign journalists, so they're locking them up. It's up to the Internet blogging and vlogging community to expose their actions and even make sure that Chinese nationals are informed of them.

Finally, President Bush should not just go to the Olympics but remind China of its human rights violations

Viacom and Judge Louis L. Stanton Rob YouTube Users of Privacy

On Thursday July 3rd, U.S. District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton forced YouTube to give Viacom -- which owns shows like "The Daily Show", and "The Colbert Report" -- records that show what videos you and I have been watching.

Here in this video , I explain that the implications are dangerous and could help, for example, the Chinese Government find and kill Tibetan protesters. In this, a private company could purchase the data from Viacom and then resell it to the Chinese Government.

The Chinese Government could use the IP address information to find the general location of Tibetan protesters, go to their areas, and kill them. That's a possible scenario.

I considered the court's "restriction" on use of the material by Viacom. But that's the problem: the block is on how the data is used -- there's no specific prohibition of the sale of the information.

The reason for all of these actions, if you've not followed the story is that Viacom has sued YouTube for allegations of copywrite infringement. Viacom lost on the majority of motions, but the one that's sticking asks for YouTube to essentially share records of what videos you and I have been watching, and that includes IP adresses.

I can't see the need for the data. Viacom claims that they wish to learn if audience views to a Viacom show on YouTube are greater than that for amateur shows like LonelyGirl15. They don't need all of that information to see that LonelyGirl15 has a larger audience traffic than "The Colbert Report" on YouTube.

You can complain about this decision. In the video, and here, I give the contact information for Judge Stanton and his Law Clerk, Samson Enzer.

The contact info is this: Phone number for Judge Stanton: 212-805-0252 and the fax is 212-805-0359. Mr. Enzer is on Linkedin and Facebook. You can contact him directly from this blog post.

Bishop Desmond Tutu Speech At SF Olympic Torch Protest

While this happened over a month ago, the Olympics have not thus making this news still relevant. And even if the Olympics had past, this would still be memorable because of the comfortable power of Bishop Desmond Tutu as expressed in this speech. Of all of the speakers, including Richard Gere, Tutu was the most powerful one.