"The Law is the Law" International Business Excuse

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: September 12, 2005 6:19:36 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: "The Law is the Law" International Business Excuse



Dave,

A question for the readership.  As we know, Yahoo has been hastening
to explain its role in the recent arrest of a Chinese "dissident"
that was enabled at least partly through Yahoo's cooperation.  Yahoo
is basically taking the tack that regardless of how they felt about
the situation, they had to abide by Chinese laws to continue doing
business in China.

Without focusing specifically on China or Yahoo (since many other
major firms and various other countries fall into the same category
of behaviors) it might be worthwhile to explore where we as
Americans should draw the ethical line regarding the cooperation of
U.S. firms with repressive laws in other countries.

We see by their actions that many of these firms appear to be
unconcerned by political oppression.  What about countries where
basic human rights (I won't type the long laundry list here) are
routinely crushed in other ways, with the full cooperation of their
governments?

At what point is simply saying "Well, we have to go along or we
can't make a buck!" no longer an acceptable excuse?  History suggests
that apart from the purely ethical concerns, firms that engage in
this sort of rationalization may face significant exposure and
liabilities down the line.

Are we infinitely willing to allow U.S. firms carte blanche for such
ethically shady partnerships, so long as the money keeps rolling in?

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
  - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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