Legal News

CA computer company claims Green Dam contains stolen code

By Richard Binder

Solid Oak Software Inc., a family-owned firm in Santa Barbara, has filed a $2.2 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the People's Republic of China, two Chinese software makers and seven major computer manufacturers that helped distribute Green Dam Youth Escort software.

Green Dam was ostensibly designed to block Web sites that featured pornography and violent content. But experts claim the program enabled government censors to block politically sensitive material, collected private data from internet users and was highly vulnerable to security breaches. Solid Oak says in its suit that 3,000 lines of code were illegally copied from its software, CYBERsitter, to create the controversial Chinese program.

The suit names not only the two Chinese companies, Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering Ltd. and Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Ltd., that allegedly copied the code, but also seven manufacturers for distributing Green Dam.  These include Acer, Sony, and Toshiba among others.

The suit also names the People's Republic of China.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 06, 2010 (boomark / email).