Chinese gov't in further Green Dam concessions

PC makers will no longer have to pre-install Green Dam censorware on PCs in China, the government has announced.

The official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday that Li Yizhong, China's minister of industry and information technology, had announced that consumers would not have to install the software. Schools and internet cafes will still be compelled to install Green Dam, Li added.

"Installation is intended to block violent and pornographic content on the Internet to protect children," said Li.

Green Dam was initially to have been rolled out from the beginning of July. However, the Chinese government delayed its rollout following revelations of serious security flaws in the software, which could have allowed hackers to build a huge botnet. The software also could have allowed updates from criminals or government agencies, leading to accusations of its being spyware. In addition, US firm CyberSitter claimed that huge swathes of the blacklisting code used in Green Dam were in fact CyberSitter proprietary code.

Both the US and the EU asked the Chinese to rethink Green Dam, while PC manufacturers also lobbied the government.