A US based software producer yesterday filed a $2.2 billion lawsuit against the Chinese government, two Chinese software markers and seven major computer manufacturers for their distribution of the Internet filtering software "Green Dam Youth Escort" - which the company claims is pirated from a similar product it makes.

Cybersitter, a family-owned software firm based in Santa Barbara, filed the lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court, alleging that the two software makers of Green Dam illegally copied over 3,000 lines of code from its award-winning Internet content filtering software.

Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering and Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy co-developed Green Dam - an Internet filtering software designed to block violent and pornographic content on the Internet to protect minors - after winning a 417-million-yuan ($61 million) bid from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

But users had repeatedly raised concerns about the security loopholes of Green Dam, which could be exploited by hackers.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that the PC makers - Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, ASUSTeK, BenQ and Haier - cooperated with the Chinese government and other software manufacturers to distribute 56 million copies of the software after they were aware that the program's content filters were possibly stolen from Cybersitter.

The MIIT had required both domestic and overseas PC makers to include the software with their PC packages sold in China by July 1 last year, but the government decided to indefinitely delay the mandatory installation of the software the night before the directive went into force.
                                                                             　　　　　　　　 Source:China Daily