Sony, Acer, Lenovo to Face Suit Over China's Web Filter

 A US software firm will file a lawsuit against technology giants Sony, Acer, and Lenovo for allegedly stealing its web filtering software and providing this to Chinese government that is said to have used the program to sanitize the Internet from political content that attacks authorities.

Solid Oak Software said it is also considering suing other computer makers for shipping the controversial software. Meanwhile, the company also said it will file for a court injunction to stop other companies from selling the program to China.

In a statement, Solid Oak said the software, which has been programmed to block pornographic materials and scintillating political content, has copied data from the company’s own Internet control product.

For the past few weeks, China has been under criticism for ordering foreign and domestic PC makers to include the software to all its computers sold in the country.

But hours before Friday’s deadline, China postponed the implementation of the program to give PC makers more time to distribute and ship the computers with retrofitted Green Dam software.

Several PC makers including Acer, Lenovo, and Sony started shipping computers into China despite the announcement. All three major computer manufacturers have different versions of the program.

The three top computer manufacturers all refused to comment on Solid Oak’s statement.

China says it mandated Green Dam to protect children from "harmful" information online. But critics and foreign industry groups have voiced concerns about the program ranging from free speech and user privacy to security and system stability. Users, however, can choose to remove the program.

Whether China will set a new deadline for PC makers to offer the software remains unclear.