China Decides Photocopiers Are Evil; At Least If They're In Tibet

from the the-analog-hole-in-the-great-firewall dept

Mon, May 24th 2010 10:21am — Mike Masnick

It's widely known that China tries to widely censor political dissent online, but modern technology makes it possible to communicate widely not just on the internet. And, so, it appears that China is also looking to plug the "analog hole" in its Great Firewall -- at least in Tibet. The gov't is so concerned about photocopier machines, that printing and copy shops in Tibet will be required to take down detailed identifying information from everyone who uses the shops.

The authorities in Tibet apparently see printing and photocopying shops as potential channels through which unrest can spread. One Chinese print shop operator in Lhasa, who is of the majority Han ethnicity rather than Tibetan, said that her husband had been summoned to a meeting last week on the new requirements.

"You know sometimes people print documents in the Tibetan language, which we don't understand," said the woman, who gave her last name as Wu. "These might be illegal pamphlets."

While some suggest that China's censorship efforts are working well, when you get down to the level of trying to prevent people from making photocopies, it makes you wonder just how desperate the government is getting in trying to prevent any kind of speech it doesn't want... and reinforces just how impossible a task it is to censor people in this manner.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: china, photocopiers, tibet

24 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 11:13am

Hee hee, plug the analog hole.

Bet some porn filters will catch this :p
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 11:26am

Stop capitalizing every word in your titles! Please!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 11:26am

Stop capitalizing every word in your titles! Please!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dark Helmet (profile), 24 May 2010 @ 11:28am

Re:
And stop taking the orange book so literally. It was published almost twenty years ago!

;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 11:30am

Re:
Stop Adding Exclamation Points To The End Of Each Sentence!
Please!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 24 May 2010 @ 11:31am

Re:
Stop capitalizing every word in your titles! Please!

I answered you on Friday when you pointed this out. That's part of our style guide and has been since we started. We like it that way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
xs (profile), 24 May 2010 @ 11:35am

How is that different from NSA or Homeland security asking Google to turn over information about web searches conducted by suspected terrorists?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 11:40am

Re:
Why?
If They Wish To Capitalize Every Word, They're Allowed To.
When You Buy Them Out And Own Them, Then You Can Enforce Your Will On How They Publish Their Articles.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 1:20pm

Re:
aT lEaSt ThEy ArEn'T aLtErNaTiNg CaPiTaL aNd LoWeRcAsE lEtTeRs ThRoUgHoUgHt ThE tItLe!
anD bE glAD THEy aREn't JUst RANdOMLY chooSINg wHAT to CAPiTALize

Maybe if you buy the $100M silence techdirt for a year you can negotiate just having them edit their editing rules
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 1:27pm

i have to wonder how long the us government would tolerate the militia types using mailboxes etc to bang off 1000 copies of "how to bomb a federal building".

mike, honestly, dont go commenting on stuff you dont understand. china is not your forte.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 1:49pm

really?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 1:50pm

really?
"it makes you wonder just how desperate the government is getting in trying to prevent any kind of speech it doesn't want... "

do you really wonder?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 2:38pm

WHY SHOULD I
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 2:38pm

IS IT MESS YOUR DATA MINING SOFTWARE UP
DAMN THAT SUXORZ
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TAMINATOR, 24 May 2010 @ 2:41pm

awww #9
POOR BABY
YOU CANT GET PEOPLE ON THE NET TO DO WHAT YOU WANT
YOU HAVE NO POWER TO TELL ME OR OTHERS WHAT AND HOW TO DO STUFF
AWWWWW

POOR TAM
hes losing it again
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 24 May 2010 @ 2:46pm

I eagerly await Bono's endorsement of China's clampdown on the evil copying machine.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Big Al, 24 May 2010 @ 3:41pm

Not Again...
Mike, stop publishing articles like this. You're giving the Australian government ideas...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2010 @ 12:33am

It's written in the law that publishing companies can't print things that violates certain terms in law, and photocopying is just a form of printing.

I'm fairly certain that Chinese government also excert tight and strict control on those fast and/or high capacity printing/photocopying machines for a long time.

IMO there's nothing really special about that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Confucius, 25 May 2010 @ 3:49am

Chinese censorship.
The handwriting is on the wall, folks. Chinese (Communism, socialism, Marxist-Leninism, call it what you will) is doomed.

The next step will be similar to the SS flying squads who roamed the streets of Berlin in April, 1945, hanging their own soldiers from lamp posts for desertion or cowardice, real or imagined.

And now you have the rise of a very restless Chinese middle class. Plus a gigantic army

It's gonna get real ugly, real soon over there, and nobody will be ready for it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2010 @ 5:35am

Re:
Eh? You are supposed to capitalise every word in a title except for small words. The only place I see this rule ignored (for no reason whatsoever other than "because") tends to be scientific papers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2010 @ 8:39am

Re:
No one is arguing that the government should tolerate people using technology for violent purposes. Cars can be use for violent purposes. That's no reason to ban cars too.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2010 @ 8:41am

Re: Re:
and should everyone who buys a kitchen knife be required to register with the government first or for each seller to keep records of who buys what knives? Or who buys a propane tank? That would seem to make more sense than requiring everyone who makes a copy of something to be required to keep records.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Amdo Tibet (profile), 26 May 2010 @ 3:07pm

Re:
The difference is that China is declaring all Tibetans to be "suspected terrorists." This new photocopying "rule" (if you can call it that) applies *only* in Tibet.

Let's say NSA required all web searches by black Americans to be turned over - that would be closer to an equivalent.

This is government-sponsored racism, worsening daily. How soon before Tibetans have to wear armbands identifying them as Tibetan? How soon until the PLA throws up its version of the Warsaw ghetto in Lhasa? At what point does the world scream, "Stop!"?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
OnlineConnect, 11 Aug 2010 @ 5:21pm

Maybe Typewriters will be banned next. It seems very heavy handed to me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]