US software firm files $2.2-billion copyright suit against China and others
06 Jan 2010
A California-based software maker has filed a $2.2-billion copyright infringement lawsuit against China and a number of computer and software makers for pirating the code of its award winning internet content filtering software.
California-based privately held Solid Oak Software, which produces website blocking software designed to prevent children from viewing web pornography and one of the first to introduce an internet porn filter to the market, has filed a $2.2-billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the Chinese government, two Chinese software makers, and seven major computer manufacturers for stealing its trade secrets, unfair competition, copyright infringement and civil conspiracy.
Apart from the Chinese government, Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, ASUSTeK, BenQ are among the list of defendants named in the case.
Solid Oak Software said in the suit that the Chinese government had issued orders in July 2009 compelling computer makers to include the Green Dam Youth Escort Internet filter in every computer sold in China to block Chinese citizens' from accessing porn, political and religious sites on the internet.
Solid Oak alleges that Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied over 3,000 lines of code from its award winning internet content filtering software, CYBERsitter, which is sold at $39.95.
The Green Dam software contains more than 6,500 political keyword filters, including words related to China's control of Tibet, the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the government-banned Falun Gong religious group.
