Atlantic Computer: A Bundle of Pricing Options

In an attempt to capture the global eCommerce market, Google introduced a Chinese version of Google.com in 2000. Around the same time, the Chinese government was developing an Internet infrastructure that let them control the flow of information. In early 2010, reports of cyber-attacks on Google’s web properties. The attacks were targeted at Chinese human rights activists’ .The information and sophistication led Google to come out strongly against the restrictions laid by the Chinese government. The company hinted at shutting down their operations in China if the censorship was not lifted.

Google announced in late 2010 in response to a Chinese-originated hacking attack on them and other US tech companies, they were no longer willing to censor searches in China and would pull out of the country completely if necessary and they pulled out. However later Google started talking with several unspecified companies in preparation to relaunch its China e-commerce search engine. After abruptly shuttering its China-based e-commerce search business, global Internet titan Google is reportedly rethinking that decision with plans to re-enter the market. The decision came from the acknowledgement by Google that China was simply too big to ignore.

Case Study 2: Free Speech

Section 230 Exemption Threatens eCommerce as Much as Speech

Section 230 is a cornerstone of American Internet policy that protects companies from liability when users post illegal content on their sites. It is widely credited with supporting the emergence of the Web 2.0 revolution of user-generated content. It provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an “interactive computer service” who publish information provided by others. It is done carve a major exemption out of a critical online free speech statute poses as serious a threat to Internet commerce as it does to free expression,

Case Study 3: Censorship

CompuServe in Germany

CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its acronym CIS) was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates. CompuServe was forced by Germany to shut down 200 newsgroups related to sex – CompuServe forced to shut them down worldwide. In September, a court in Hamburg ruled that AOL was not negligent in this instance, because it was not possible to control the contents.