U.S. software company says China stole Green Dam code

By: Rebekah Heacock on 15 June 2009
Posted in China, United States of America, United States/Canada, Asia, Copyright, Filtering tech and software

A California-based software company has accused a Chinese company of lifting parts of the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software directly from its own CyberSitter program.

Solid Oak Software Inc. claims that parts of the Green Dam code, including "blacklist" files and code using "proprietary encryption methods," are identical to code used in its own Internet filtering software.

Solid Oak is seeking an injunction to stop American companies from selling computers containing the software. The legal issues surrounding the injunction are murky, as the fact that Green Dam is only sold in China means the case would need to be settled according to Chinese law.

Representatives of Jinhui, the Chinese company that developed Green Dam, deny the charges.

For more information about Green Dam, check out "China's Green Dam: The Implications of Government Control Encroaching on the Home PC," a recent OpenNet Initiative bulletin evaluating the software.