US software firm sues China for 2.2 billion dollars

By Agence France Presse AFP - via (UNCENSORED) Yahoo! News
January 05, 2010

A California firm filed a 2.2 billion dollar lawsuit against China, accusing Beijing of stealing its technology to bar Internet access to political and religious sites in China.

Santa Barbara-based Cybersitter is suing the Chinese government, two Chinese companies and seven PC manufacturers for misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, copyright infringement and conspiracy in connection with the distribution of Green Dam Youth Escort.

Cybersitter was created to help parents filter content seen by children.

However, the suit alleges that the Chinese makers of Green Dam illegally copied more than 3,000 lines of code from the filtering software, and conspired with China's rulers and computer manufacturers to distribute more than 56 million copies of the pirated software throughout China.

The suit filed in federal court in Los Angeles alleges the computer manufacturers continued to distribute millions of copies of Green Dam even after becoming aware that the program's content filters were stolen.

The lawsuit also alleges the Chinese software makers broke United States laws governing economic espionage and trade secrets.

"This lawsuit aims to strike a blow against the all-too-common practices of foreign software manufacturers and distributors who believe that they can violate the intellectual property rights of small American companies with impunity without being brought to justice in US courts," Cybersitter attorney Greg Fayer said.

"American innovation is the lifeblood of the software industry, and it is vital that the fruits of those labors be protected at home and abroad," he said.

Green Dam made headlines when the Chinese government ordered all computer manufacturers to bundle the software with any computer sold in China after July 1, 2009.

Human rights groups protested the ruling, arguing Green Dam's filters would allow the Chinese government to block access to Web sites it deemed politically undesirable.

Cybersitter, billed as the first commercially available Internet content filter software, has won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award five times, according to the company.

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