China throws rotten tomatoes at IMDb

China this week appears to have blocked access to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com), giving rise to speculation that it is stepping up its war on websites that allow user-generated content. IMDb is owned by Amazon and is available to its claimed 57 million visitors per month in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian …

[Anonymous Coward]

on the other hand

perhaps it's a quick way of making life harder for the DVD pirates.

[Craig 12]

Not imdb!

I could live without facebook, twitter or youtube, but IMDB? Time to revolt...

(Actually, you can download the entire imdb dataset for free, so there's probably a chinese version knocking about anyway given their passion for ignoring copyright)

[Anonymous Coward]

Tor

The more they try to block, the happier I am to be doing my bit running a (part time) Tor relay.

[SuperTim]

China's approach

will soon be mirrored in the UK if our liberties are eroded much more!

Credit where it's due though, my DVD player is still working and it was free in a box of cornflakes!

[BristolBachelor]

UK E-commerce law?

"Inserting the phrase "Dalai Lama" into the site search engine will turn up plenty of links to films and other material in respect of a charatcer deemed separatist and dangerous by the Chinese government."

How is this different to the UK (or USA?) Anyone can be claimed to be linked to 'terrorism' (Icelandic banks, photographers, tall person in Chatham?) and their webpages forced off the net.

However the term 'terrorist' in the west now seems to encompass anyone with views differing from the controlling party.

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest...

...we take chinese products off our shopping lists. Surely the world won't collapse if we buy fewer pieces of plastic crap and lead-painted toys? Or are we so far gone that we can't even produce the essentials needed for a modern society? Then we truly deserve what we're going to get...

[fishcakes]

not too long...

... before the Great Firewall of Australia follows the same path. Maybe the Australian Govt can simply just swap blacklists with the Chinese - it's all about keeping our children safe.

[C Yates]

Allyoursitesarebelongtous!

Are there any sites the Chinese don't block? Apart from their own Gov ones obviously...

Somebody set up us the bomb! =)