Google's Corporate Philosophy lists ten principles, and #6 is "You can make money without doing evil", commonly shortened to "do no evil". It's #4 that's so sadly ironic: "Democracy on the web works".

To their credit, they held out longer than Microsoft (MSN) and Yahoo. Microsoft's capitulation was stereotypically evil: They censor their message boards to prevent posting of words like "tiananmen", and there's some indication that, because the posts are globally-accessible, the filter is global: Nobody on MSN can talk about subjects forbidden in China. (Reports are conflicting, grain of salt.)

Yahoo's complicity may be even broader and more chilling: They're credited with getting a dissident jailed for ten years when they turned over his email to the Chinese government. There are degrees of privacy violation, and while tinkering with search results is sleazy, and censoring posts outrageous, turning over email is far beyond the pale.

Of course these companies are all being coerced, directly and indirectly. They choose to do business in China, but once there, billions in revenue are held hostage to the government's will. Obeying the Chinese government is a precondition for entry into that market. I suspect that while the CEOs of those companies may be bothered by the situation and might personally be willing to forego the revenue on principle, they in turn are held hostage by Wall Street's mindless hunger for profit. Not trying to get into China these days is a firing offense for a CEO.

It's amusing to remember Karl Marx's observation that capitalists will happily sell you the rope to hang them with. Sad, but amusing.

And then I think about the fact that I run message boards and email, and what would I do if I were visited by government agents, waving the "Patriot" Act under my nose and demanding that I turn over email and logs? Or if they wanted install their own monitoring software on my server? I have far less power to resist than the big guys. While the US government doesn't have a direct power to censor like the Chinese, it certainly has broad powers to put the squeeze on people like me, and to put a damper on unpopular speech with the threat of investigation for "terrorist activities" and other vaguely-sinister but usefully undefined activities.

What would it take for the HabitableZone to fall under Federal scrutiny? How about the same standard as a wiretap: A message posted from the Middle East, perhaps from a cybercafe known to be frequented by terrorists.

I started to write "But I'm happy to report that it hasn't happened yet", but then I remembered that among the known provisions of the "Patriot" Act is a blanket gag order. Anyone compelled to cooperate with a Federal investigation can never talk about it. Whether or not I've actually been contacted by the Feds, my denial has no credibility under Federal law.

Ain't that a fine kettle o'fish? The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave isn't what it used to be. As a result of the "Patriot" Act, you can't be sure you can trust me, I can't be sure I can trust my ISP, he can't be sure he can trust upstream ISPs...it's turtles all the way down.

This is how free societies get flushed down the toilet of history.