Chinese government

Skype is answering concerns about its joint venture with TOM Online in China. A report released Thursday by Canadian human-rights activists revealed a massive surveillance system that monitors Skype messages containing words China's government deems offensive.

Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, released the report, Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform.

Skype Speaks Out

China may be open to the Olympics, but it has shut off access to Apple's iTunes Store -- apparently because of a new album dedicated to Tibet. According to the album's sponsoring organization, more than 40 Olympic athletes from North America, Europe and China downloaded it "as an act of solidarity with Tibet" before the shutdown.

While Internet attacks continue in Georgia, security experts say the U.S. is not prepared for similar attacks that could steal confidential data and wreak havoc on U.S. computer systems.

National intelligence officials earlier this year told a Senate committee that unlike the U.S. military, the federal government and private sector are not prepared for cyber attacks and pointed to China and Russia as threats to consider. It wasn't the first time government officials cited China as a threat.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) announced Monday that three U.S. Internet companies have agreed to an Internet code of conduct for doing business with repressive regimes like China. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo worked with human-rights organizations and other nongovernment groups to hammer out the framework.

The agreement, subject to final approval of the terms, comes after intense hearings in 2006 before the Senate Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee chaired by Durbin. On July 21 Durbin said the subcommittee would like to see progress, and the companies appear to have delivered.

China is once again agreeing to lift restrictions on Internet usage -- at least on some sites -- for journalists covering the Olympic Games.

Human-rights group Amnesty International reports that its site is accessible, but other politically sensitive sites are still blocked. The Chinese government did not issue a formal statement explaining its decision to open up access, and did not say whether such access is permanent.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Chinese government confirmed Wednesday what free-speech advocates loathe to hear: Reporters covering the Olympic Games won't be able to access Web sites that China deems politically sensitive.

Internet censorship is standard for China's citizens, but China vowed seven years ago to allow journalists unfettered access during the Olympics. The backpedaling means about 20,000 reporters and technicians that will flood Beijing next week for the Olympic Games will be working with a handicap.

Foreign-owned hotels in China face the prospect of "severe retaliation" if they refuse to install government software that can spy on Internet use by hotel guests coming to watch the summer Olympic games, a U.S. lawmaker said Tuesday.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., produced a translated version of a document from China's Public Security Bureau that requires hotels to use the monitoring equipment.

Last week Google launched Knol, its Wikipedia-wannabe site, with a sparse base of knowledge. The online encyclopedia has millions of words to go before it catches up with the hundreds of thousands of international entries in Wikipedia's storehouse of human knowledge.

But some critics maintain that a few of Knol's features may give Wikipedia some much-needed competition.

Who's on Knol?

China's State Intellectual Property Office has denied a flurry of media reports suggesting the government agency was investigating Microsoft for discriminatory software pricing. In a statement briefly posted at its official Web site, according to media sources, the SIPO noted that it has never undertaken any market-monopoly investigations before, and has no plans to do so because its mandate from Chinese government agencies is "to investigate and research domestic piracy issues."