Likely US legislation coming out of China Internet issues

Nearly every US company with a Web site located in China will have to move it elsewhere or its executives would face prison terms of up to a year, according to proposed legislation expected to be introduced this week in the US Congress.

If enacted, the draft would dramatically change the business practices of corporations with operations in China, Iran, Vietnam and other nations deemed to be overly "Internet-restricting."

The proposal, created by Rep. Christopher Smith, in response to recent reports about censorship in China by Google, Yahoo and others, also makes it unlawful to filter search results or turn over information about users to certain governments unless the US Justice Department approves. It would also impose new export restrictions to those nations.

Ooh! If this gets enacted (which is unlikely in it's current form) this would be a major coup for freedom of information and a major blow for free trade. I could see a move like this creating a wave of reactionery nationalism from the Chinese in particular.

Or maybe the hard ball approach might get the Chinese to finally change their ways - I very much doubt it. I think everyone has to be extremely careful about how they tread over this China/Internet freedom of information thing.