Green Dam, a filtering software that’s supposed to protect China’s population from harmful content (and can be called a piece of garbage on more than one level), seems to trigger anticipatory obedience (you could also call it business sense, I guess) within some PC companies. Even though the Chinese government postponed its plans to make the software mandatory with all PC shipments in the country from July 1, Acer, Asustek and Lenovo already bundle their hardware with Green Dam.

Lenovo has started shipping Green Dam-equipped PCs in China without telling their customers. Apparently the world’s fourth largest computer manufacturer is afraid nobody will buy Lenovo PCs anymore if it does. Asustek is less cautious and has begun shipping PCs with a Green Dam CD in early July. And Acer plans to do the same from the beginning of August.

Not all companies are joining the Green Dam bandwagon though. Sony began shipping its PCs with the software as early as June this year but stopped in the meantime. Other makers, such as HP or Dell, haven’t even started.

UPDATE – A word from Lenovo:

Regarding your story, you may want to clarify for your readers what you
mean by “bundle” and “equipped.” For China consumers
who purchase a Lenovo PC, we are providing a CD-ROM in the box. It is up to
the customer whether to install the CD or not. Thanks.

Via China Daily