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10/31/2005 Archived Entry: "Media Player more important than Democracy?"

That paragon of libertarian business, Microsoft, in order to please the Chinese government, has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" (among others) from its Chinese search engine.

What else could they do, confronted with the Big Bad Government, you ask? Well, in response to South Korea's demand that Microsoft "unbundle" Instant Messenger and Media Player from Windows, Microsoft has threatened to simply withdraw their product from South Korea.

Microsoft has every right to withdraw their product from any market. But the fact that they would choose instead to Orwell their search engine, in order to appease Beijing, should tell libertarians exactly how principled and freedom-loving they are.  —brad