$2.3 Billion Lawsuit Against China For Copyright Infringement In Green Dam Filter Software Moves Forward

from the jurisdiction? dept

Last year, we wrote about how the company behind CyberSitter was suing China and a bunch of computer companies, for China's "Green Dam Youth Escort" filtering/monitoring software. You may recall that a few years back China had mandated that all computers must contain this software, which resulted in public protests, and the government backing down. However, the software was still installed on tens of millions of computers. It was only then that it was noticed the software appeared to contain code directly copied from CyberSitter, leading to the lawsuit. At the time of the lawsuit, we noted that there would likely be jurisdictional questions, and lumping in the various PC makers seemed like a longshot.

While I still think both things are true, it appears that the court in Los Angeles is saying the trial can move ahead, and that China is in default for not responding to the lawsuit. The country's only response to date was to complain to the US State Department, but that has no bearing on the court case. I still can't see how a California court can have any jurisdiction on what's happening in China -- and even the court seems to suggest the case really belongs in China. Even if CyberSitter wins the case in the US, it seems unlikely that it would ever be able to collect.

Filed Under: china, copyright, green dam
Companies: cybersitter

CyberSitter Sues The Chinese Government (In Los Angeles) Over Green Dam Filters

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Last summer, of course, there was a lot of attention paid to China's announced plans that every PC sold in China needed to include the new "Green Dam Youth Escort" software, which was a client-side filtering program. After international outrage over the plan actually had some sort of impact, the government backed down. A smaller story, that came out during all of this, was that the Green Dam software appeared to copy significant portions of the commercial filter product, CyberSitter. Now, CyberSitter has sued the Chinese government and a bunch of companies for $2.2 billion. The lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles, and I would wonder what jurisdiction a Los Angeles district court has over the Chinese government concerning software that was only to be used in China.

While the lawsuit does include the expected copyright claim, it also goes much further to claim trade secret violations and "conspiracy." And while the Chinese government is obviously the headline grabber, it also includes Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, ASUSTek, BenQ and Haier, claiming that these computer makers were in on the conspiracy. While many of those have US operations, it seems like a longshot that (a) the court has jurisdiction over their actions in China or (b) the charge of "conspiracy" has any chance of sticking.

Filed Under: china, conspiracy, copyright, filters, green dam
Companies: acer, asustek, benq, cybersitter, haier, lenovo, sony, toshiba