My colleague Richard Koman over on ZDNet reports that starting July 1, 2009, all PCs sold in China must include "spyware." The software will be used to block pornography and political dissent.

PC makers are said to be irritated with the new rules but presumably not enough to buck the government. The major irritation seems to be that July 1 isn’t enough time to add the software to massive production lines.

I think the Chinese government is doing this the wrong way. Our PCs in the US don't need to be pre-loaded with spyware -- within minutes of being connected to the Internet there is a ton of spyware that gets transparently loaded.

Why tip off the dissenters and pornographers . . . and those that like to consume those subjects? You could collect lots of information on both sides of the transaction.

That would be much more useful to the Chinese government.

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Please see:

Yahoo's China "police informant" role sparked a $47.5 billion slide in market value

Remembering Tiananmen . . . And Gutless Silicon Valley Companies