Opera Closes China Loophole; Reinstates Censorship 272
ObsessiveMathsFreak writes "Coming hot on the heels of Microsoft's censoring of Chinese search results, browser-maker Opera has become the latest company to joyfully contribute to prosperous growth of the Great Firewall of China. For speed and convenience, the mobile phone-based 'Opera Mini' browser receives formatted web pages via Opera's own line of proxy servers. These unfiltered proxies gave Opera's Chinese users rare unfettered access to the wider web. However, this loophole has now been closed, with Chinese users now being directed to 'upgrade' to 'Opera Mini China,' which closes this loophole, returning them to the bosom of party censorship, and Opera to the favor of the Chinese Government. Truly; 'To Get Rich Is Glorious.'"
What word do yo think they were aiming for? (Score:5, Informative)
buxom ??? What word do you think they were aiming for?
Re:I need a browser business lesson here. (Score:4, Informative)
Opera does a lot more business than just ads in a browser. They get income from Google to include them as default search engine and additional income for every ad click made by Opera user. Their other sources of income also include mobile phones clients (manufacturers and telco's might pay them to include their browser), Wii, other media equipment. For example lots of hotel's seem to be using Opera as embedded browser for their systems and to give visitor ability to browse internet from TV (this isn't always shown everywhere, but I was visiting a hotel once and the hotel tv rebooted and showed Opera logo on startup).
And considering China has 1.5 billion people, it would be quite stupid to ignore that market area.
Remember: (Score:4, Informative)
I love the Chinese people - very fine people, respect for education, pretty girls, good solid folks. But their government is crap, and has been crap for 100 years, and the current collection of power mad bullies running the joint are a bunch of asshats who deserve all the punishment and torture they meet out upon their rivals and those who seek to exercise their basic human rights as outlined in the UN Charter.
To the people of China: Welcome to the 21st century. We're glad you made it.
To the Chinese Government: FUCK YOU. YOU SCUM SUCKING FREAKS.
RS
that doesn't make sense (Score:1, Informative)
You can't be returned to the buxom of anything, because buxom isn't a noun. It's an adjective.
Were you thinking of bosom? They're two words with completely different etymologies: Buxom used to mean "bendy or pliable" and is related to German biegsam.
Re:I would change browser out of protest (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know why this is or if it's true or if Opera plans to fix it but I would find their implementation of a solution pretty archaic if that's one of the caveats. Hopefully they are working on fixing that.
Probably true. Opera Mini works by connecting to proxy servers that filter Web content so that it displays properly on a cell phone's tiny screen. All Opera Software would have to do is run a separate set of proxies for "Opera Mini China" and then actively refuse connections on their main proxies originating from Chinese IP address blocks. (Or, more likely, the Great Firewall will block them.)
Re:I would change browser out of protest (Score:5, Informative)
We aren't talking the "main" Opera browser here. Opera Mini is for mobile phones that aren't powerful enough to support their full mobile client. Opera Mini proxy servers compress and optimize web pages so that it's easier and faster for your mobile phone to show them.
This doesn't affect Opera on computers or the full-scale Opera Mobile client.
Re:a censored mind is a weak mind (Score:3, Informative)
I agree with most of your points, but I can't agree that censorship causes the Chinese population to be simpletons. One need look only at the average person in free societies to conclude that Simpletoniaism survives quite well even with unfettered access to information and education.
Re:Why do we expect corps. to do politics for us ? (Score:4, Informative)
Everyone seems to forget that Corporations are Amoral and base all decisions on Legalities. Simply put, Morals have no place in a corporation as the decision goes like this. Is it Legal? Does it Offer a Competitive Advantage? If yes to both, Do it. It's that damn simple.
Re:Can we see this? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Torn (Score:3, Informative)
P.S.
The summary reads, "For speed and convenience, the mobile phone-based 'Opera Mini' browser receives formatted web pages via Opera's own line of proxy servers." So too does the full-sized Opera 10 browser, but I don't think it goes far enough. The images are compressed but not enough to make any real difference in speed. They should be compressing the text, HTML, and CSS files too. Plus a lot of the images aren't compressed at all, which makes no logical sense to me.