A practical lawsuit against China internet censorship

You can support us by digging it at lawsuit against China Internet Censorship..
You can simply send me email yetaai at gmail.com to say what you think about it.
On 2007 February 28th, I found that I could not connect to a web site of mine, http://www.realcix.com/. The 'traceroute' command told me that the problem came from a router inside the China Telecom network. As a customer of China Telecom, I asked for a fix, for 'maintenance' in computer jargon.
After a month and many messages back and forth, China Telecom investigated. They told me that the problem was caused by a "*non replicable reason*". They could do nothing. Also, China Telecom cannot or will not provide a reason on paper. Such a reason could be acknowledged by a court. China Telecom will only tell me by telephone.
Many people know that internet censorship in China is a big obstacle to the progress of democracy. How can we use law to improve this situation?
In China, there is no clear, legal statement about the human right to know truth or to make approaches towards it. Moreover, legal suits may only involve direct stakeholders. You may not sue a legal entity with an indirect connection. The dynamic nature of the internet makes facts hard to prove.
Here I will tell you about a legal suit that could greatly change the situation of internet censorship in China. I even hope to improve the Chinese Constitution.
But I can only do this with your support! At the same time, I want to show to everyone that democracy can be reached by peaceful methods.
Help wanted! Please, link to this article, email this article to your friend, or just let more of your friends know. This will help! Even better, come to court! This trial will be held in Shanghai at 9:00AM (Beijing time, zone of UMT+8:00) May 29th. The place is No. 611 Ding Xiang Road, Pu Dong New District, Shanghai, China. I got an phone call from the responsible judge on 2:00PM Beijing time, May 28. The first trial time was delayed by court. We have to wait for new schedule. Update on 11:38pm, July 31st: Latest subpoena arrived that the first trial is scheduled 9:00 pm, August 3rd in same place. There is no promised time deadline from the court. Please take your ID card and arrive at the gate of court before 10 minutes of the trial. If you have other problems, please contact me at +86 135 6409 6137(This phone stoped now Aug.28,2007). This is a temporary mobile phone which is available only for this lawsuit. Don't call it for other purpose.
The website, RealCIX, introduces our personal finance software. It is located in the United States. Not long ago, we made our software freely redistributable with the GNU General Public License, the GNU GPL.
You can see our intent on http://sourceforge.net/projects/realcix. (The old site, http://www.realcix.com/, has not yet been updated.)
Neither site should offend anyone in this planet. We want to update http://www.realcix.com/ but are located in China. We cannot access that site easily. Only with special routing technology can we update it at all - and transfers are slow and full of error.
Outside of China, people have no trouble looking at the site. From inside China, people can only see it when they use special routing technology. (Please remember, as I write this, that http://www.realcix.com/ has not yet been updated. To see the intended update, look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/realcix.)
From the very beginning, I knew about the Great Chinese Firewall - and ignored it. Friends persuaded me to obtain a new domain name and a new host. I did not know that someday that would hurt me. Now it has. I am hindered in accessing and updating http://www.realcix.com/.
Many would give up. The Americans have an expression, "You can't fight city hall", meaning you cannot fight a government or a government controlled monster.
However, I believe that with the help of today's internet, the morality of public community, I can win this case. I can even make a contribution to improve Chinese democracy. My plan is to raise a lawsuit and try to get support from both domestic and international community.
There are several points I would like to make clear:

• China Telecom, whom I am suing. Nobody knows officially who is responsible for the Great Chinese Firewall and nobody can help. And even if we did learn, according to Chinese law, I would most likely lack any direct legal relationship. So I would not be able to sue it.
  However, I am a customer of China Telecom. This relationship can be demonstrated by my contract and by the bills I pay monthly. Using their equipment, I fail to access a website. A trace says the problem is inside them.
• My Purpose. China Telecom has done more than simply prevent me from accessing my own web site. It has done that. In addition, and more to the point, it has violated my human right to know truth or approaches to truth. Unfortunately, there is no statement about truth in the Chinese Constitution. And there is no law.
  I can only claim that China Telecom is in a breach of contract. The problem is their responsibility. According to the contract, China Telecom should solve the problem or explain why it cannot be solved.
• Proof. It is an extremely difficult case. Regarding the reason http://www.realcix.com/ is blocked - China Telecom has not provided me with anything written. It has not provided any documents that a court can acknowledge.
  I went to a Shanghai notarization office. In China, those offices are more or less a branch of Government. Notarization also provides a public service and earns money. It cost me a total of 2,000 CNY, 1,000 for the computer operation, 1,000 for the notarization letter posted to China Telecom office.
  Two notaries and I went through several steps to access http://www.realcix.com/ with IE (Internet Explorer).
  We used the notaries' hardware and software, as they are a 3rd party. (China Telecom and I are 1st and 2nd parties. The notaries' machine has only Windows and IE installed.)
  Without any proxy, IE showed a business advertisement page in the main part of screen and there was a short message in its upper right corner that said http://www.realcix.com/ could not be accessed.
  With a proxy located outside of China, the home page of http://www.realcix.com/ was displayed. That demonstrates that http://www.realcix.com/ was available. A screen copy of the command "tracert www.realcix.com" shows that the problem is a router inside China Telecom. (See the bottom of this article, the last scaned image.)
  Note: I am lucky that proxy was available when we saw the notary. The internet is always changing and even a network expert may have trouble.
  Special routing software may be used, too, but neither notary would accept mine for fear that I was cheating.
• Beyond this case. Can we improve the Chinese Constitution to contain a statement that the government should protect the human right to know the truth or approaches to the truth?
  If censorship is unavoidable, how it can be monitored and made transparent? With monitoring and transparency, errors can be corrected. Certainly, China Telecom should have an official (and helpful) answer. With one, I could learn why I am blocked and to whom I can ask in order to recover access from China to my website.

Here are scanned pages from the public notarization which was held on March 9th, 2007 in the office of Pu Dong, a public notary in Shanghai, China.
The text in these scanned images is in Chinese. In some browsers, an image will show only a single vertical bar. In that case, copy the underlying link, paste it to an address bar and type 'enter'. Then you should be able to see.

1. The first image is page 1 of the notarized text. It describes the steps taken.
2. The second image is page 2 of the notarized text.
3. The 3rd image is the screen copy of IE accessing http://www.realcix.com/ without a proxy. The result screen displayed a business advertisement page with only a short message of "the site you are accessing is not reachable." in the upper right corner. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people are limited in what they may seek.
4. The 4th image is the screen copy of setting a proxy outside of China for IE. If this proxy is set, IE may gain access to http://www.realcix.com/. If IE succeeded, we will know that we had been restricted without proxy.
5. This is the real page of http://www.realcix.com/. Considering the thousands sites blocked in China, for example, http://www.wikipedia.org/, hundreds of millions of Chinese are limited in what they may seek.
6. The route trace demonstrates that the router is inside China Telecom.

Special thanks to Robert J. Chassell. I don't think that I could explain things clearly in English without his help. Thanks to Richard Stallman. Without his support, I would have given up my efforts on this lawsuit. Thanks Bill Xu, who cared and who gave a unique view on this event. And thanks to my wife, Wei Yi Lu, and to my son, Du Xing Ran. I know both you will support me to protect our rights by law. And last, I want to give a special thanks to the Chinese Government. I could not raise this lawsuit without today's peaceful environment in China.

互联网管制不当，中国电信遭起诉

For English readers: http://yetaai.blogspot.com/2007/05/practical-lawsuit-against-china.html
请您通过掘客给我们投票，这可能是最好的让此事快速浮出水面的支持方式。
cndigg.com中文投票链接。
digg.com的英文投票链接。
可以通过电子邮件获取本案最新消息的通知，只需订阅如下论坛的邮件列表(此邮件列表只有我能发帖，我保证只发送本案的相关消息，并且不出售，不转让您的所有信息)。您也可以浏览此论坛网页上看到本案的所有相关消息。
http://groups.google.com/group/censorshipchina

互联网管制典型案例！现在有一个针对它的已经成功起诉的案件， 您是否支持它呢？

最近留言的朋友比较多，谢谢你们的支持，如果篇幅太长，留言困难的话，可以直接给我发电子邮件yetaai@gmail.com。短信（号码就在下面）也可以，这样可以让我知道支持我的人很多。我会认认真真把这件事情做好。一审败诉的话，我会上诉，二审败诉的话，我会尽我的力量让更多的人知道这件事。无论案子成败，我会把过程仔细记录下来，公布。
另外，有些网友反应图片看不到，请右键单击图片链接，一般有一个查看图片的右键菜单，您一定可以看到公证书的这些扫描件的 :)
需要帮助！您可以链接此文，电邮此文给您的朋友，让更多的人知道此案是对我 们 的极大的支持！甚至，您可以旁听法院的公审，我会在我的此博客中公布上 海法院 浦东新区分院的开庭通知。此案将于5月29日上午9：00开庭接法庭电话通知，开庭时间已延后，等待新传票，详细请看开庭时间的滚动更新。。。地点是上 海浦东新区丁香路611号。您可以携带您的身份证在开庭前十分钟到达法院门口。 如果有任何问题，请致电＋86 135 6409 6137此电话已停用，2007年8月28日。 注意此手机号码为本案专设的 临时号码，请不要为其他事情呼叫它。
2007年2月28日，我发现我自己做的一个网站http://www.realcix.com/不能上了， 和国外的朋友一联系，发现他们都能上，设一个代理，也能上，大概是被电信封锁 了。很奇怪，这个网站是关于一个个人财务软件的，文件都是我亲手上载的，不可 能涉及黄色和不恰当的政治，我都不敢相信电信会封这样的东西。做了一个路由 跟踪，出问题的路由器是中国电信内部的。我是电信的宽带用户，于是给电信报了 一个故障。电话里来来回回很多次，差不多耗了 4个礼拜，他们大概做了一个内部 小调查，然后告诉我说，这个问题的原因是“非回复性原因”并且他们对我的问题不 可能做任何事情。真是不可思议。然后我要求他们提供一个正式的书面答复，回答 是没有！他们最多能通过电话对我进行告知。
其实我很早就听说中国的这个长城防火墙计划，据说还是思科做的总包，来自地球 上最民主的国家。我开始还以为，只是过滤一下黄色的东西，没想到现在。。。花 的是我们纳税人的钱，反过头来整得我没脾气。真是很不服气，我并没有机会参加 这个项目的决策过程，问到信息产业部，什么都不知，甚至在网上都查不到这个项 目的信息。我的很多朋友都劝我算了，和信息产业部，中国电信掰手腕，我不够级 别！劝我另外注册一个域名，换个主机服务商。但这不是我的性格，何况，这事往 大了说关系到全国人民的权利问题，关系到民主问题。我愿意相信全世界人民的良 知，如果，我能就这个问题提起一个公益诉讼，争取到国际国内媒体和公众的支 持，我相信我不会输。
要打官司，就有很多技术问题，

• 起诉谁。最终我定下来起诉中国电信，尽管我不知道它是不是长城防火墙的运营主 体，就算我知道谁在负责这个东西，我也很难起诉它。按照中国法律，必须是直接 的厉害关系才能起诉。我是中国电信的客户，问题路由器在其管理网段内，我只可 能先起诉它，否则法院根本不会受理。
• 起诉什么。说心里话，我想直接诉中国电信违反了我的信息获取权，知情权，可惜 现在中国宪法没有这一条规定。不信各位查一查就知道我说的对了。我只能诉电信 违反了它和我之间的服务合同。按照这个合同，中国电信必须在48小时内修复客户 的故障，如果不能修复，必须对客户进行告知。从情理上说，我认为我碰到的问题 就是中国电信的故障。
• 证据。这个问题有多难，我心里可知道。好在我对电脑和网络还算得上一只三脚 猫。我通过上海浦东公证处，对于http: //www.realcix.com/的可访问性，被封锁 的情况，路由的情况都做了一个操作，屏幕拷贝成了公证书，大家可以看一下底下 的链接。又到浦东工商局调出中国电信（其子公司上海电信）的地址，给它发了一 个公证函。果然，电信并没有理睬我。自己认为，法庭公正的话，这些证据应该够 了。当然，公众和媒体的支持很重要。否则，法院很难公平处理此案。这些证据的取得花费了我两千人民币，一千是关于计算机操作的，一千是公正函件的价格。应该说我是幸运的，做公正那天，代理服务器整好可以用。老天大概也希望我举证成功吧!
• 官司之外。希望这个官司能成为一个真正的公益官司，中国的公民们能真正关心自 己的权利，不要太害怕去当出头鸟，一起呼吁把宪法给该了，增加保护公民知情权 的条款，并指定具体的信息访问保护法，例如，对电信这样的企业，不可滥用信息 监管，起码，当公民提出申请的时候，它有义务以法律承认的方式，例如纸头，传 真，正式网页等，告知被封锁的原因。重要的是，所有的中国公民们都拿全体公民 的事当自己的事，这事就好办了。有一件事，我真有点感触，我到处发邮件，找支 持，结果，还真的是一些老外再给我反馈，替我着急。中国人自己的反馈，嘿，还 真一个没有！没事，我相信会有的！！

下面是公正书的扫描件，
下面是公正书的扫描件，有些浏览器的图形显示可能只有一个小长方块，请 拷贝其链接，粘贴到地址栏，就可以看到对应的图像了。

1. 第一页，公证过程文字描述，主要讲述公证的电脑操作和结果。
2. 第二页，公证过程文字续
3. 第三页，不设代理服务器时，浏览到一个中国电信的欺骗性网页。
4. 第四页，这是设置代理服务器的屏幕拷贝。
5. 第五页，被访问网站的真实页面。考虑一下wikipedia.org等著名站点也被封锁了，稍微夸张一点说，中国电信欺骗了十几亿人！！
6. 第六页，被访问网站的路由报告显示故障路由器就在中国电信网络内部。

特别致谢Robert J. Chassell。本文的英译文得到了他 的巨大和无私的帮助。特别致谢Richard Stallman，没有他的支持，我可能早就 放弃了此案。感谢Bill Xu，他给予了本案关注，并提出了他的独特视角。Siren网友指出本文"权力"应该为"权利"，现已更正。Wunl网友指出“现在社会只有进步和倒退,真和假之分.什么叫反动之类的东西?所谓反动之类的东西是单方面的观点”，我同意，故更改为“不恰当的政治”。

谢谢我的妻子和儿子，我知道你们会支持我通过法律保 护我们自己的权利。

最后，感谢我国政府，她为今天的和平环境付出了巨大 的努力，没有这个环境，我不可能提起这个诉讼。